▪ I. kettledrum, n.
(ˈkɛt(ə)lˌdrʌm)
1. A musical instrument of percussion consisting of a hollow hemisphere of brass or copper, over the edge of which parchment is stretched and tuned to a definite note: cf. drum n.1 1.
| [1554 Machyn Diary (Camden) 76 Thrumpets..and drumes mad of ketylles.] 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. iv. 11 The kettle Drum and Trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his Pledge. 1730 Fielding Tom Thumb ii. iv, A noise, Great as the kettledrums of twenty armies. 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 30 No Trumpet to sound, or Kettle-Drum to beat. |
| attrib. 1874 T. Hardy Far from Madding Crowd I. 68 His head being dandled up and down on the bed of the waggon like a kettledrum-stick. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 6 Sept. 4/3 The kettledrum boy plays his incessant pom-pom-pom. |
† 2. = kettledrummer. Obs.
| 1542 Sir T. Seymour Let. to Hen. VIII, in St. Papers IX. 501 The captaynes that your Heynes wolde retayne, the dromes and fyffes, the ketyl dromes. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 239 b, Trompettes..twelve in nombre besyde two kettle Drommes on horsebacke. 1669 Lond. Gaz. No. 4012/3, 6. Trumpets and 2. Kettle-Drums in rich Liveries. 1705 Vanbrugh Confed. i. ii, The rogue had a kettledrum to his father. 1755 Mem. Capt. P. Drake I. xv. 143 One Morgrigg, a Kettle Drum to the Queen's Life-guard. |
3. colloq. An afternoon tea-party on a large scale.
A punning term, implying that the gathering was a smaller affair than the usual ‘drum’ (see drum n.1 10) and associating it with the tea-kettle.
| 1861 Times 1 July 12 Then the 5 o'clock tea, the sort of little assembly so happily called ‘kettledrum’. 1888 Lady 25 Oct. 374/1 We ask them to afternoon tea, or have kettle⁓drums at Le Repos. |
▪ II. ˈkettledrum, v.
[f. prec. n.]
intr. To beat the kettledrum; to make a noise like a kettledrum. Hence ˈkettleˌdrumming vbl. n.
| 1848 B. Webb Continental Ecclesiol. 277 There was a great deal too much trumpeting and kettle-drumming in the orchestra. 1893 Crockett Stickit Minister 175 He heard..his own heart kettle-drumming in his ears. |