steel drum

noun

1. Music. a bowl-shaped percussion instrument common in the West Indies, made from a steel barrel divided into sections producing different notes when struck.

Word History and Origins

Origin of steel drum¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

On it, you wrote down whatever you hoped for the coming year, then cast it into a big steel drum in the center of the yard.

From The Daily Beast

At half-past twelve at night a prolonged tattoo on the little steel drum!

From Project Gutenberg

Twenty feet before him stood the steel drum round which the endless cable worked.

From Project Gutenberg

In the tube, the weapon sounded like a firecracker going off in a steel drum.

From Project Gutenberg

There was only a fifty-gallon steel drum used as a spare fuel supply.

From Project Gutenberg

The dogged plodder at the desk endured other heartburnings of which the little steel drum beat the signal.

From Project Gutenberg