rataplan

American

[rat-uh-plan] / ˌræt əˈplæn /

noun

a sound of or as of the beating of a drum.

verb (used without object)

rataplanned, rataplanning

to produce such a sound.

rataplan British

/ ˌrætəˈplæn /

noun

a drumming sound

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of rataplan

1840–50; < French; imitative

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.

Up went the barrier and off went nine of America's fastest three-year-old trotters�with a rataplan dear to U. S. horse lovers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Last week, with no rataplan of drums, The Admiral and The Biscuit met at Pimlico.

From Time Magazine Archive

With a rataplan and a paradiddle, U.S. radio last week opened its 1947-48 season.

From Time Magazine Archive

When the Nazi submariners emerged from the U-boat, they were greeted with a rataplan of small-caliber fire from encircling destroyers.

From Time Magazine Archive

The wild chorus of a soldier-song, with its rataplan accompaniment of knuckles on the table, echoed through the square, and smote upon my ear with anything but a congenial sense of pleasure.

From Maurice Tiernay Soldier of Fortune by Lever, Charles James

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023