Meanings
present singular third person bedrums · participle present bedrumming · participle past bedrummed · past bedrummed
- transitiveTo drum about, over, or in celebration for (something).
This bedrummed and betrumpeted man of genius cannot read the A B a b of the human emotions.
1897, The Canadian Magazine2 more examples
As the wedding company proceeded to the church, with the town-band bedrumming and becymballing them in the van, she whimpered and sobbed as in the evil hour when the Job's-news reached her, that the wild sea had devoured her husband, with ship and fortune.
1874, Thomas Carlyle, Works: Tales by Musaeus, Tieck, Richter[They] thrust themselves, with the utmost of their soul and strength, to the highest, by them attainable, pinnacle of the most bedrummed and betrumpeted booth in the Fair of the World.
1875, John Ruskin, “Letter LVIII”, in Fors Clavigera. Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain, volume V, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, page 272
Origin
From be- (“about, over”) + drum.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
bedrum. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bedrum
“bedrum.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bedrum. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bedrum,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bedrum.
Source: bedrum on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.