tambour

Meanings

Noun

• A small shallow drum.
• A circular frame for embroidery.
• A rich kind of gold and silver embroidery.
• Silk or other material embroidered on a tambour.
• The capital of a Corinthian column.
• Synonym of drum
• A work usually in the form of a redan, to enclose a space before a door or staircase, or at the gorge of a larger work. It is arranged like a stockade.
• A shallow metallic cup or drum, with a thin elastic membrane supporting a writing lever. Two or more of these are connected by a rubber tube and used to transmit and register the movements of the pulse or of any pulsating artery.
• In real tennis, a buttress-like obstruction in the main wall.

Verb

• To embroider on a tambour (circular frame).

Origin

• Borrowed from French tambour ("drum"), from Arabic طُنْبُور, perhaps influenced by Persian تبیر. Compare Armenian տաւիղ, and tabla.