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
They use a tambour hook technique called Lunéville, named after the town in Lorraine where it emerged around 1810, having traveled the Silk Road from Asia.
From New York Times ● Oct. 11, 2021
An enclosed galley is amidships, adjacent to a family-style dining/game room area that can be closed off with a sliding tambour bulkhead.
From Time Magazine Archive
With a grim look he went into the sitting-room, where his wife was dawdling over her tambour frame; and Polly sped up the stairs.
From Crestlands A Centennial Story of Cane Ridge by Mary Addams Bayne
It began to emerge in a measure, a boom-boom-boom of tambours and big goatskin drums.
From O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 by Edison Marshall
The domes and cupolas constitute the summits of what are called by architects 'tambours;' the tambours of the cupolas are round, that of the central dome octagonal, and that of the hinder secondary one pentagonal.
From Roumania Past and Present by James Samuelson
For round pillars were run up in it, with alternate tambours of white and black, all placed in parallel lines.
From The Deipnosophists, or Banquet of the Learned of Athen?us by Athen?us
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
"Ah!" said Herr Droi, "zat are ze tambours, zat are my camerades, ze grenadier."
From In the Year '13 A Tale of Mecklenburg Life by Fritz Reuter
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
Their employments are the needle, tambouring, and reading.
From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 1 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore
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
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
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
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.
