drum
     n 1: a musical percussion instrument; usually consists of a
          hollow cylinder with a membrane stretch across each end
          [syn: {membranophone}, {tympan}]
     2: the sound of a drum; "he could hear the drums before he
        heard the fifes"
     3: a bulging cylindrical shape; hollow with flat ends [syn: {barrel}]
     4: a cylindrical metal container used for shipping or storage
        of liquids [syn: {metal drum}]
     5: a hollow cast-iron cylinder attached to the wheel that forms
        part of the brakes [syn: {brake drum}]
     6: small to medium-sized bottom-dwelling food and game fishes
        of shallow coastal and fresh waters that make a drumming
        noise [syn: {drumfish}]
     v 1: make a rhythmic sound; "Rain drummed against the
          windshield"; "The drums beat all night" [syn: {beat}, {thrum}]
     2: play a percussion instrument
     3: study intensively, as before an exam; "I had to bone up on
        my Latin verbs before the final exam" [syn: {cram}, {grind
        away}, {bone up}, {swot}, {get up}, {mug up}, {swot up}, {bone}]
     [also: {drumming}, {drummed}]
Source: WordNet® 2.0

drum adj, n. Ancient techspeak term referring to slow, cylindrical
   magnetic media that were once state-of-the-art storage devices. Under
   some versions of BSD Unix the disk partition used for swapping is still
   called `/dev/drum'; this has led to considerable humor and not a few
   straight-faced but utterly bogus `explanations' getting foisted on
   {newbie}s. See also "{The Story of Mel}" in Appendix A.


Source: The Jargon File