tambour
Americannoun
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Music. a drum.
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a drum player.
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Also called tabaret. a circular frame consisting of two hoops, one fitting within the other, in which cloth is stretched for embroidering.
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embroidery done on such a frame.
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Furniture. a flexible shutter used as a desk top or in place of a door, composed of a number of closely set wood strips attached to a piece of cloth, the whole sliding in grooves along the sides or at the top and bottom.
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Architecture. drum.
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Court Tennis. a sloping buttress opposite the penthouse, on the hazard side of the court.
verb (used with or without object)
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tambours,
present (3rd person singular)
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tamboured,
past participle, past
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tambouring
present participle
noun
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real tennis the sloping buttress on one side of the receiver's end of the court
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a small round embroidery frame, consisting of two concentric hoops over which the fabric is stretched while being worked
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embroidered work done on such a frame
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a sliding door on desks, cabinets, etc, made of thin strips of wood glued side by side onto a canvas backing
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architect a wall that is circular in plan, esp one that supports a dome or one that is surrounded by a colonnade
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a drum
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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tamboursimple
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tambourssimple
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have tambouredperfect
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has tambouredperfect
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am tambouringprogressive
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are tambouringprogressive
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is tambouringprogressive
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have been tambouringperfect progressive
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has been tambouringperfect progressive
Past
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tambouredsimple
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had tambouredperfect
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was tambouringprogressive
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were tambouringprogressive
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had been tambouringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of tambour
1475–85; < Middle French: drum ≪ Arabic tanbūr lute < Medieval Greek pandoúra; cf. bandore
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:
“This is Jean-Pierre Calodat,” said Josée Grard, 81, running her fingers along the name written on the globe-shaped sculpture as tambour drums echoed around her.
From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2024
It is a hybrid instrument - his invention - combining the neck of an guitar with a traditional four-stringed tambour.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2022
Bronzed mirrors, terrazzo floor, brass snoots illuminating tambour walls — it feels more 1970s Milan than 21st-century New York.
From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2011
Stowage above is behind teak tambour doors, and below in three drawers and two cabinets.
From Time Magazine Archive
There a girl, the centre of a leering ring, danced to the music of her tambour; and there again a lad tumbled, and climbed a pole at risk of his limbs.
From The Abbess Of Vlaye by Stanley J. Weyman
These tambours cannot well be recommended; the material is apt to stretch unevenly, and a worked part, if flattened between the hoops, is liable to be damaged.
From Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving by Grace Christie
Strange shouts of denunciation blended with the harsh braying of horns, and the clang and clash of cymbals and tambours sounded in every quarter of the city.
From Alroy The Prince Of The Captivity by Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
And the Christians defended themselves right well, and every time that they went upon the walls, they sounded trumpets and tambours, and made great rejoicings, as the Cid had commanded.
From Chronicle of the Cid by Robert Southey
It was what the French call la rafale des tambours de la mort—the ruffle of the drums of death.
From Now It Can Be Told by Philip Gibbs
Morris, Morrice, mor′is, Morr′is-dance, n. a Moorish dance: a dance in which bells, rattles, tambours, &c. are introduced.—v.i.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
Also say that I have altered my mind about the satin, which I wish to be tamboured with crochet-work; also, that tambour is to be used with monograms on the various garments.
From Poor Folk by C. J. Hogarth
The wristbands over his finely shaped and gloved hands were tamboured in the same beautiful manner, and fringed with lace of the most costly texture.
From Captain Kyd, Vol. II or, The Wizard of the Sea by Jonathon Holt Ingraham
Through the bosom of the frock, which was folded back, appeared linen of the finest cambric, richly tamboured, as if done by the fair fingers of some tasteful maiden.
From Captain Kyd, Vol. II or, The Wizard of the Sea by Jonathon Holt Ingraham
In England, Edward Newton and Thomas Archbold invented and patented a machine on May 4, 1841, for tambouring or ornamenting the backs of gloves.
From The Invention of the Sewing Machine by Grace Rogers Cooper
Lady Laura, in the centre, winds silk on a card from a skein held by Lady Horatia; while Lady Maria, on the right, bends over her tambouring frame.
From Famous European Artists by Sarah K. Bolton
Two neat shelves on the wall contained a few books; and in the window stood a tambouring frame.
From Discipline by Mary Brunton
Weavers of muslin were brought to the mill, and women to teach the lassie bairns in our old clachan tambouring instead of hand-spinning.
From The World's Greatest Books — Volume 04 — Fiction by Sir John Alexander Hammerton
Never mind the pieces of needle-work, the tambouring, the maps of the world made by her needle.
From Advice to Young Men And (Incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life. In a Series of Letters, Addressed to a Youth, a Bachelor, a Lover, a Husband, a Father, a Citizen, or a Subject. by William Cobbett
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.
