Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A mid-sized drum having one or two heads and a cylindrical body with a depth approximately equal to its diameter, often used in drum sets.
  • noun Any of various small-headed drums, usually long and narrow, that are beaten with the hands.
  • noun A monotonous rhythmical drumbeat or similar sound.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To beat on a tom-tom.
  • noun In India, the drum used by musicians, jugglers, public criers, etc.
  • noun Same as gong, 1.
  • noun A circular dye-vat constructed in such a way that a series of upright mallets may be made to pound upon the material placed within it and thus work the dye-liquor well into the fiber. Largely used in hosierydyeing, particularly in the application of aniline black.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun See tam-tam.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun onomatopoeia A small joined pair of drums, beaten with the hands.
  • noun usually as a pair Any cylindrical drum, with no snare; part of a drum kit.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various drums with small heads

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Hindi ṭamṭam, probably of imitative origin.]

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Examples

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  • See also tom tom.

    October 1, 2010