A drum beaten as a summons to war or an accompaniment to the fray. Also fig.
1593. Peele, Edw. I., A 3 b. Welcome, manly followers, That … on your war drums carry crownes as kings.
1809. Campbell, Gert. Wyom., III. xx. But hark! what nearer war-drum shakes the glade?
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 127. Till the war-drum throbb’d no longer, and the battle flags were furl’d.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, IV. lvii. 245. He beat the war-drum this time with tremendous energy.
