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tom-tom

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.03 sec.
tom-tom, name popularly applied to high-pitched hand drums, usually barrel-shaped and having either one or two drumheads of skin. They are tunable to specific pitches. Supposedly of Native American or Asian origin, they are sometimes used in modern dance orchestras for special effects. The terms tom-tom and tam-tam are sometimes confused; the latter is another name for the gong.
tom-tom
1. a drum associated either with the American Indians or with Eastern cultures, usually beaten with the hands as a signalling instrument
2. a standard cylindrical drum, normally with one drumhead


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"You will never hear the tom-tom again," he muttered, but inaudibly of course, for strict silence had been enjoined
But the sweetmeat seller in the camp lent him a little tom-tom--a drum beaten with the flat of the hand--and he sat down, cross-legged, before Kala Nag as the stars began to come out, the tom-tom in his lap, and he thumped and he thumped and he thumped, and the more he thought of the great honor that had been done to him, the more he thumped, all alone among the elephant fodder.
The stone came down with a thump on the white meat, and thereafter arose and fell in a sort of tom-tom accompaniment to the poet's song:
 
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