tom-tom

See also: tomtom, TomTom, and Appendix:Variations of "tom"

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeia.

Noun

tom-tom (plural tom-toms)

1. A small joined pair of drums, beaten with the hands.
   • 1926, H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu:

     It was voodoo, apparently, but voodoo of a more terrible sort than they had ever known; and some of their women and children had disappeared since the malevolent tom-tom had begun its incessant beating far within the black haunted woods where no dweller ventured.

2. (usually as a pair) Any cylindrical drum, with no snare; part of a drum kit.
3. Alternative form of tam-tam (“a kind of flat gong”)

Anagrams

• motmot