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:
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
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
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
At this time the chainstitch was used exclusively for decorative embroidery, and from the French name for drum—the shape of the frame that held the fabric—the worked fabric came to be called tambour embroidery.
From The Invention of the Sewing Machine by Grace Rogers Cooper
The tambours sounded now with a great alarum, and the sun was shining.
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
The golden voice was octaves deeper, vibrant, throbbing with that muffled, menacing note that must have pulsed from the golden tambours that summoned to battle Timur's fierce hordes.
From The Metal Monster by Abraham Merritt
The tambours of the side doors and the statues on the latter were destroyed by the flames.
From Rheims and the Battles for its Possession Illustrated Michelin Guides to the Battle-Fields (1914-1918) by Various
The drums beat to arms in Saragossa's town, the tambours roll, the tabors sound, and 400,000 men attend the call of King Marsil.
From Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5 A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History by Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne
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
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
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
From this superficial description of its work, the device might seem to be just another tambouring machine.
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
Their employments are the needle, tambouring, and reading.
From Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 1 With His Letters and Journals by Thomas Moore
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
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