noun
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a stick used for playing a drum
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the lower joint of the leg of a cooked fowl
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of drumstick
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How does drumstick compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Vocabulary lists containing drumstick
Musical Instruments - Introductory
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Musical Instruments - Middle School
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Musical Instruments - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Much like that final drumstick you probably shouldn’t have eaten, equities spent last week digesting their gains.
From Barron's ● Dec. 7, 2025
You’ll be equal parts annoyed and delighted at its existence, while giving full kudos to the production design team that fashioned a Picasso-esque drumstick for Black to wave around.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
The researchers found that in birds, the tibial joint surfaces have curved arcs, and the shortened fibula is able to roll within the bird's drumstick for about its length relative to the tibia.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2024
Some 75.3 million years ago, a dinosaur swallowed the Cretaceous equivalent of a turkey drumstick.
From New York Times ● Dec. 8, 2023
Though her palm had given the first tap, she would not rob me of the thunder of the first wicked drumstick drumroll.
From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez
"We used five loaves of bread, chicken drumsticks, pasta, apples, crackers - anything we could get our hands on for them to eat," Ridgeon said.
From BBC ● Jan. 10, 2026
“Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth, appearing alongside his wife, is asked whether he prefers drumsticks, flats, or boneless wings.
From Slate ● Dec. 18, 2025
But customers are skipping drumsticks, breasts and thighs, reaching instead for sandwiches and tenders that have made Chick-fil-A, Dave’s Hot Chicken and Raising Cane’s some of the industry’s fastest-growing brands.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2025
Ruffin told me he’s been holding onto a pair of Ayers’ drumsticks for years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 14, 2025
One of them had drumsticks in his hands and was leaned over softly tapping out a rhythm on the wooden stage floor.
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
