ˈwar-drum
A drum beaten as a summons to war or an accompaniment to the fray. Also fig.
| 1593 Peele Edw. I, A 3 b, Welcome, manly followers, That..on your war drums carry crownes as kings. 1809 Campbell Gert. Wyom. iii. xx, But hark! what nearer war-drum shakes the glade? 1842 Tennyson Locksley Hall 127 Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags were furl'd. 1880 M{supc}Carthy Own Times IV. lvii. 245 He beat the war-drum this time with tremendous energy. |