[Partly f. prec. sb., partly directly echoic.] a. intr. To beat a tom-tom or drum; to drum. b. trans. To give notice of or call attention to by beating a tom-tom. c. To perform on a tom-tom or drum; transf. to play in a monotonous way, to ‘drum,’ ‘strum.’ Hence Tom-tomming vbl. sb., Tom-tommer.
1857. S. Hislop, in G. Smith, Life, v. (1888), 166. It had been tom-tomed in the city that all who are too poor to lay in a supply of provisions should leave.
1859. R. F. Burton, in Jrnl. Geog. Soc., XXIX. 414. A man tom-toming lustily upon a kettle-drum shaped like an European hourglass.
1860. Tristram, Gt. Sahara, ix. 146. While preparing for the night we heard a loud tomtomming without.
1872. ‘Aliph Cheem’ (Yeldham), Lays of Ind (ed. 3), 39.
| [Dancers] Keeping time to the pipers’ and tomtommers’ strains | |
| With the clink of their anklets of resonant chains. |
1834. J. Colborne, Hicks Pasha, 118. My friends … trumpet, bugle, and ‘tam-tam’ all day long.
1898. Barker, Comic Side School Life, 29. Able to tom-tom easy accompaniments on the piano.
