drumstickn.
/ˈdrʌmstɪk/, U.S. /ˈdrəmˌstɪk/ 1. A stick, typically with a shaped or padded head, used for beating a drum.
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society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > percussion instrument > drum > [noun] > drumstick
sticka1398
tabor-stick1486
drumstick1589
tapskin1605
drum stave1832
potato masher1835
baguette1876
wire brush1927
brush1955
1589 in W. H. Stevenson Rec. Borough Nottingham (1889) IV. 227 For iiij. gunstickes and twoe drumme stickes.
1625 S. Purchas Pilgrimes II. ix. xii. 1539 A rew of keyes of wood..on the tops whereof they play with stickes like drum stickes, which haue buttons or balls as big as a nut in the points.
1665 R. Hooke Micrographia 12 A very stiff Drum-head, which is vehemently or very nimbly beaten with the Drumsticks.
1715 J. Addison Drummer iii. 22 I warrant you if the Ghost appears, he'll whisk ye that Wand before his Eyes, and strike you the Drum-stick out of his Hand.
1780 W. Tooke tr. J. G. Georgi Russia I. 31 The sorcerer puts a ring upon his drum, and beats on it with his drum-stick, which is made of the mossy horn of a rein deer.
1833 H. W. Longfellow in S. G. Goodrich Token & Atlantic Souvenir 82 The little red coated drummer flourished his drum sticks.
1864 C. Engel Music Most Anc. Nations v. 219 The Egyptians had also straight drumsticks with a handle, and a knob at the end.
1926 Living Age 11 Sept. 582/1 He still kept up a continual roll with his drumsticks.
1982 Mod. Drummer Oct. 3 (advt.) You play Synsonics Drums by simply touching the buttons... Or by hitting the pads with your drumsticks or fingers.
2008 J. Cutler Starlust ii. 23 Ricky..reached for his drumsticks to show me how well he could bang on his snare drum and cymbals.
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1602 T. Dekker Satiro-mastix sig. Hv Asi. Hold Capten Tucca holde... Tuc. What, dost summon a parlie my little Drum-sticke?
1633 S. Marmion Fine Compan. iii. iv. sig. F2v What? I will not offend thee my good drumsticke.
1836 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker 1st Ser. xxx. 199 Every drumstick of a boy ridicules the belief of his forefathers.
1866 J. T. Trowbridge Lucy Arlyn xvi. 199 Say, you dressed-up drumstick! what become of Martin?
3.
a. The lower joint of the leg of a bird, esp. as an item of food, which somewhat resembles a padded or knobbed drumstick in shape.
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the world > food and drink > food > animals for food > fowls > [noun] > cuts or parts of fowl
wingc1470
soul?a1475
giblet1546
merrythought1598
sideman1632
sidesman1642
drumstick1646
pinion1655
side bone1712
chicken liver1733
pope's nose1788
liver wing1796
apron1807
parson's nose1836
stumps1845
oyster1855
supreme1856
wishbone1860
pulling bone1877
carcass1883
pully-bone1897
pull-bonea1903
chicken breast1941
chicken tender1955
1646 M. Lluelyn Men-miracles 28 His Fleshy Thigh men justly call, As large as Capons (bone and all) The London Major..Tis thought nere eate a Fairer Drum-sticke.
1685 S. Wesley Maggots 2 'Twas I, That made his Paw, like Drum-stick fry.
1764 S. Foote Mayor of Garret i. 24 She always helps me herself to the tough drumsticks of turkies.
1788 J. Trusler Honours of Table 70 The thigh-bone [of a goose]..may be easily divided in the joint from the leg-bone, or drum-stick, as it is called.
1831 T. Moore Summer Fête 825 Since Dinner..Put Supper and her fowls so white, Legs, wings, and drumsticks, all to flight.
1848 W. M. Thackeray Bk. Snobs xxv. 95 A finger, as knotted as a turkey's drumstick.
1907 N.Y. Times 15 Dec. (Mag. section) 5/4 Skewer some thin slices of pork across the breast [of the guinea-fowl] and around the drumsticks.
1998 B. Kingsolver Poisonwood Bible (1999) i. 49 At the picnic she walked through the crowd passing out thighs and drumsticks to the little children.
2008 Metro 11 Aug. (London ed.) 35/3 On the menu are five-spice roast chicken drumsticks and dragon-prawn meatballs.
b. figurative and humorous. A person's leg. Frequently in plural.
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the world > life > the body > external parts of body > limb > leg > [noun]
shanka900
legc1300
grainsa1400
limbc1400
foot?a1425
stumpa1500
pin?1515
pestlea1529
boughc1550
stamp1567
understander1583
pile1584
supporters1601
walker?1611
trestle1612
fetlock1645
pedestal1695
drumstick1770
gam1785
timber1807
tram1808–18
fork1812
prop1817
nethers1822
forkals1828
understanding1828
stick1830
nether person1835
locomotive1836
nether man1846
underpinning1848
bender1849
Scotch peg1857
Scotch1859
under-pinner1859
stem1860
Coryate's compasses1864
peg1891
wheel1927
shaft1935
1770 S. Foote Lame Lover i. 13 What d'ye think I would change with Bill Spindle for one of his drumsticks?
1831 J. K. Paulding Dutchman's Fireside I. iii. 34 He let go the bridle, and ran as fast as his little short drumsticks would permit towards the boat.
1940 S. Longstreet Decade 171 Skirts are longer... Imagine that after years of seeing pink drumsticks, rolled stockings and a good four inches of American womanhood's thighs.
1991 Sun (Brisbane) 26 June 27 (comic strip) My drumsticks are killing me.
4. Any of various other objects more or less resembling a drumstick in shape.
a. The long slender seed pods of the horseradish tree, Moringa oleifera (family Moringaceae), eaten widely in tropical countries as a vegetable. Cf. drumstick tree n. at Compounds 2.
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1821 tr. J. Haafner Trav. on Foot through Island of Ceylon viii. 67 The fruit is about a foot long, round and green... The Dutch call it Drum-sticks [Du. trommelstokken], from its shape.
1985 R. Fernandez Malaysian Cookery 236 The vegetables traditionally used are gourds, raw bananas, yam, aubergine, beans, raw mango, drumsticks, [etc.]
2013 Pioneer (India) (Nexis) 26 Apr. The health benefits of drumsticks were first officially known about two decades ago and familiar to Indians.
b. Chiefly English regional. †(a) The stem and hard flower bud of a knapweed (genus Centaurea) (obsolete rare); (b) either of two knapweeds having such a flower bud, Centaurea nigra (black knapweed) and C. scabiosa (now rare). Also in plural in same sense.
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants perceived as weeds or harmful plants > weed > [noun] > knapweed > head of
horse-knop1691
horse-knob1724
drumstick1854
1854 A. E. Baker Gloss. Northants. Words I. 201 Drumstick, the calix and stalk of the common knapweed... The calix being very hard, boys use it to drum and play with—hence the name.
1878 J. Britten & R. Holland Dict. Eng. Plant-names 160 Drumstick. Centaurea nigra, L.,and C. Scabiosa, L.
1920 W. E. Brenchley Weeds of Farm Land xiii. 211 Centaurea scabiosa, L.—Bachelor's buttons,..drumstick, great horse knobs, [etc.].
1938 J. Walpole-Bond Hist. Sussex Birds I. 130 Amongst weeds, thistles and knapweed (known locally as ‘drum-sticks’) stand out as prime favourites [as nesting sites for corn-buntings].
2006 N. Mac Coitir Irish Wild Plants 272 Common Knapweed... Alternative names:..Blackheads, Black Knapweed, Buttonweed (Kerry), Drumsticks, Hardhead, Horse-button (Donegal), Horse-knappers, [etc.].
c. Cell Biology. An appendage of the nucleus of a polymorphonuclear leucocyte, such as a blood cell, consisting of a thin strand of sex chromatin with a solid, rounded head.
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1954 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 3 July 6/1 The drumstick has a well-defined, solid, round head, some 1.5 μ in diameter, joined by a single fine chromatin strand to one lobe of the nucleus.
1966 W. A. Davidson in K. L. Moore Sex Chromatin iii. 69 The drumsticks which have been identified in animals appear to be similar in form and size to those in man.
2006 B. J. Bain Blood Cells (ed. 4) iii. 93/2 The presence and frequency of drumsticks is related to the number of X chromosomes.
5. U.S. regional. The stilt sandpiper, Micropalama (or Calidris) himantopus. rare.With reference to the bird's long and slender legs.
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the world > animals > birds > order Charadriiformes > family Scolopacidae (snipes, etc.) > [noun] > genus Calidris
drumstick1880
1880 Forest & Stream 5 Aug. 4/3 Long-legged sandpiper (Micropalama himantopus)..; frost snipe; peep; drum-stick.
1889 Cent. Dict. Drumstick... 3. The stilt-sandpiper or bastard dowitcher.
1923 W. L. McAtee Local Names Migratory Game Birds 52 Book names... Audubon's stilt sandpiper, blind snipe,.., drumstick.
Compounds
C1.
a. attributive. Shaped like a drumstick; long and thin, esp. with a bulbous end.
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1774 O. Goldsmith in Covent-Garden Mag. May 193/2 The deuce confound..these drumstick shanks.
1835 N. Amer. Mag. Apr. 376 He is a strong built man..with drumstick legs, broad chest, John Bull neck, [etc.].
1871 Dublin Q. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 52 324 In several of the cases reference will be found to the filbert-shaped nails and drum-stick fingers.
1967 Jrnl. Pediatrics 70 108/1 The drumstick nuclear appendages of polymorphonuclear leukocytes are believed to be the equivalent of the chromatin bodies of buccal mucosal cells.
1999 BBC Gardeners' World Apr. 99/2 Hearty clumps of dark green foliage and stunning silvery blue drumstick flowers make Echinops bannaticus a focal point in the late summer border.
2009 ‘M. Mink’ & ‘D. Diamond’ Hood Life 90 She one of them bitches with those drumstick legs all big at top and skinny as shit at the bottom.
b. In parasynthetic adjectives, esp. as drumstick-shaped.
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1853 G. E. Day tr. C. G. Lehmann Physiol. Chem. II. 173 The blood-corpuscles were strongly contracted in their centre, and had a biscuit-like or drum-stick-shaped form [Ger. so dass sie..trommelschlägelförmig erschienen].
1899 Med. Rec. (N.Y.) 11 Nov. 725/1 An atmosphere that..would breed anything from the genial fungus of sour milk to the frilled ‘drumstick-headed’ microbe of tetanus.
2006 Islands Mag. Jan. 49/2 Just 45 miles off the eastern shore of Nicaragua is drumstick-shaped Little Corn Island.
C2.
drumstick allium n. a cultivated herbaceous perennial, Allium sphaerocephalon (family Amaryllidaceae), with a straight, tall stem bearing a large head of purple flowers.
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1976 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 25 Sept. 32/3 Another two-footer with balls of reddish-purple is the drumstick allium.
1991 Seaword 19 iii. 5/2 Another bed fronting the exhibit features petunias, ornamental grasses, marguerite daisies, spiderflowers,..and drumstick allium.
2014 Country Living (Nexis) May Grow them so their foliage is hidden by other plants—with taller drumstick alliums, this creates a striking effect with the flowers hovering over the border.
drumstick primrose n. the primula Primula denticulata, which is native to the Himalayas and often grown elsewhere as an ornamental for its globular flowers held on short erect stems.
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1886 Garden 17 Apr. 346/2 Primula cashmeriana.—Some hard-hearted vandal has called this the ‘drumstick Primrose’, a dreadful name for a beautiful flower.
1977 tr. M. Schubert Compl. Home Gardening ii. 145 The drumstick primrose, P. denticulata, is another old favourite.
2013 Irish Independent (Nexis) 20 Apr. (Weekend section) 26 The drumstick primrose holds its spherical flower heads about 10cm or so above the soil.
drumstick primula n. = drumstick primrose n.
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1954 Gardeners' Chron. 27 Mar. 119/2 The Drumstick Primula, Primula denticulata, is a most versatile garden plant.
1997 H. Van Dijk Encycl. Border Plants 250/2 The drumstick primula, Primula denticulata has a completely different habit, a little stiff for the border perhaps, but nice along the edge.
2013 Times (Nexis) 19 Jan. (Weekend section) 13 Nothing could be easier to grow than the mauve drumstick primula.
drumstick tree n. [compare Dutch trommelstokboom, denoting Cassia fistula (1726)] any of several tropical trees bearing drumstick-shaped seed pods: (a) any of several trees of the genus Cassia (family Leguminosae ( Fabaceae)), esp. C. sieberiana of Africa; (b) the horseradish tree, Moringa oleifera (family Moringaceae; cf. sense 4a).
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1824 Edinb. Philos. Jrnl. 11 344 Cassia conspicua, new, like C. fistula, the Monkey Drum-stick Tree of the colonists.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. I. 429/2 Drumstick Tree, Cathartocarpus conspicua.
1883 Lancet 2 June 947/2 My friend Dr. Ondaatje, of Ceylon, informs me that it [sc. Moringa pterygosperma] is called the ‘drumstick’ tree on account of the curious pod-like fruit.
2011 West Austral. (Perth) (Nexis) 21 Apr. (HAB section) 12 The drumstick tree is drought tolerant and grows in arid regions through to the tropics.
2011 Pharmacognosy Jrnl. 13 13/1 Botanical name: Cassia sieberiana... Common English name: West African laburnum, drumstick tree.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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