n. 1. One whose office is to best the drum, as in military exercises and marching. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who solicits custom; a commercial traveler. [ Colloq. U.S. ] Bartlett. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) A fish that makes a sound when caught; as: (a) The squeteague. (b) A California sculpin. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Zool.) A large West Indian cockroach (Blatta gigantea) which drums on woodwork, as a sexual call. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of beating upon, or as if upon, a drum; also, the noise which the male of the ruffed grouse makes in spring, by beating his wings upon his sides. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ From Thomas Drummond, a British naval officer. ] A very intense light, produced by turning two streams of gas, one oxygen and the other hydrogen, or coal gas, in a state of ignition, upon a ball of lime; or a stream of oxygen gas through a flame of alcohol upon a ball or disk of lime; -- called also oxycalcium light, or lime light. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The name is also applied sometimes to a heliostat, invented by Drummond, for rendering visible a distant point, as in geodetic surveying, by reflecting upon it a beam of light from the sun. [ 1913 Webster ]