drum beatn.
/ˈdrʌm biːt/, U.S. /ˈdrəm ˌbit/ 1. Originally and chiefly North American. A signal sounded by beating a drum, used as a summons or to mark a particular time of the day or night. Frequently at drum beat. Now historical.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > performing music > playing instruments > beating drum > [noun] > stroke on drum
beat1672
drum beat1673
1673 Minutes Council New Netherland 27 Aug. in Documents Colonial Hist. State New Jersey (1880) I. 129 The Burghers of that town and dependencies were found to amount to 78 in number, 69 of whom appeared at drum-beat.
1835 Autobiogr. Irish Traveller I. x. 282 Collected all those together who could stand on their legs: and who were as quickly dismissed to sleep, with the peremptory orders to appear sober at drum-beat the following morning.
1880 Pierceton (Indiana) Independent 11 Aug. The few armed men at the post were instantly mustered at drum beat, and pressed back the young Blackfeet.
1950 D. E. H. Smith Charlestonian's Recoll. (1950) vii. 63 The servants were sometimes allowed to have dancing in the evening, to which their friends came, but they always broke up at drum-beat, so as to get home before that ceased.
1993 G. Davison Unforgiving Minute i. 15 The drum-beat sounded at six and the soldiers and convicts duly assembled.
2004 F. Anderson et al. George Washington Remembers 39 (note) The garrison was allowed to march out of Fort Necessity at drum beat.
2.
a. A stroke on a drum; a rhythm or pattern of strokes played on a drum or drums. Also figurative. Cf. beat n.1 3.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > sound of instruments > [noun] > sound of drums
tuck of druma1500
dubc1572
dub-a-dub1582
tucking1632
drumming1663
beat1672
vellum thunder1716
rattan1764
hub a dub1777
drum1810
drum beat1817
tom-tomming1833
bum-bum1844
rataplan1846
tom-tom1863
tattooing1871
tumming1882
tan-tan1893
1817 W. Glen Heath Flowers 90 Killicrankie's wild pass saw the Hero fall, 'Mid the drum-beat and musket rattle.
c1850 H. W. Longfellow My Lost Youth The drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er.
1855 Putnam's Monthly Mag. Aug. iv I remember..the drum-beat repeated o'er and o'er, and the bugle wild and shrill.
1868 M. J. Holmes Rose Mather iv. 37 Again the drum-beat was heard mingled with the shrill notes of the fife; the soldiers were marching down the street.
1888 C. C. Coffin (title) The drum-beat of the nation.
1915 Pop. Sci. Monthly Aug. 164 Memories of the drum-beat and of the tread of marching armies.
1945 P. Radin Road Life & Death Prol. 9 Suddenly a single drumbeat resounds in the distance. Then silence. Another drumbeat, this time nearer.
1953 Billboard 3 Jan. 24/4 A succession of solos over a Latin drum beat.
1988 H. Casabona & D. Frederick Advanced MIDI Applications 22 Program the timecode reader to advance a certain number of addresses with each drum beat it receives.
1991 R. Dallek Lone Star Rising I. xi. 3 A steady drum beat of criticism about the Administration's weak response to the Communist threat.
2012 Odessa (Texas) Amer. 29 July b1/2 Now it seems all music is about is finding the best drum beat that sounds good on a three minute loop.
b. figurative. With reference to steady advancement or progress, esp. with allusion to marching to a drumbeat; frequently with of. Cf. march n.5 IV.
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1884 Firemen's Mag. July 389/2 I am keeping step to the drumbeat of progress.
1911 A. P. Johnson Libr. Advertising vii. 160 Outdoor advertising is synchronous with human industry; its development is contemporaneous with the drumbeat of civilization.
1960 El Paso (Texas) Herald-Post 1 June The drumbeat of history quickens as 1960 opens a decade that will challenge the staying power of America and the Free World.
1995 Star Ledger (Newark) 12 Feb. i. 6/4 The drumbeat of criticism continued yesterday.
2000 K. S. Davis FDR, War President iv. 188 He had been at great pains in this address..to stay precisely in step with what he perceived to be the main body of public opinion as it marched to history's drumbeat.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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