Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Music A soprano brass instrument consisting of a long metal tube looped once and ending in a flared bell, the modern type being equipped with three valves for producing variations in pitch.
  • noun Something shaped or sounding like this instrument.
  • noun Music An organ stop that produces a tone like that of the brass instrument.
  • noun A resounding call, as that of the elephant.
  • intransitive verb Music To play a trumpet.
  • intransitive verb To give forth a resounding call.
  • intransitive verb To sound or proclaim loudly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A musical wind-instrument, properly of metal, consisting of a cup-shaped mouthpiece, a long cylindrical or a short conical tube, and a flaring bell.
  • noun In organ-building, a powerful reed-stop, having a tone somewhat resembling that of a trumpet.
  • noun A trumpeter; one who sounds a trumpet, either literally or figuratively.
  • noun A sound like that of a trumpet; a loud cry, especially that of the elephant.
  • noun A funnel- or trumpet-shaped conductor or guide used in many forms of drawing, doubling, spinning, or other machines to guide the slivers, rovings, yarns, wire, or other materials to the machine, and at once to compact them. It is made in many shapes, but in all the flaring trumpet-mouth is suggested.
  • noun The flaring mouth of a draw-head of a railway-car, serving to guide the coupling to the pin or other fastening.
  • noun A trumpet-shell or sea-trumpet; a triton. See cuts under chank and Triton.
  • noun One of the pitcher-plants, Sarracenia flava. See trumpetleaf.
  • To publish by sound of trumpet; hence, to blaze or noise abroad; proclaim; celebrate.
  • To form with a swell or in the shape of a bell or funnel.
  • To sound a trumpet; also, to emit a loud trumpet-like sound or cry, as an elephant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To sound loudly, or with a tone like a trumpet; to utter a trumplike cry.
  • noun (Mus.) A wind instrument of great antiquity, much used in war and military exercises, and of great value in the orchestra. In consists of a long metallic tube, curved (once or twice) into a convenient shape, and ending in a bell. Its scale in the lower octaves is limited to the first natural harmonics; but there are modern trumpets capable, by means of valves or pistons, of producing every tone within their compass, although at the expense of the true ringing quality of tone.
  • noun (Mil.) A trumpeter.
  • noun One who praises, or propagates praise, or is the instrument of propagating it.
  • noun (Mach) A funnel, or short, fiaring pipe, used as a guide or conductor, as for yarn in a knitting machine.
  • noun See under Ear.
  • noun (Bot.) a great seaweed (Ecklonia buccinalis) of the Southern Ocean. It has a long, hollow stem, enlarging upwards, which may be made into a kind of trumpet, and is used for many purposes.
  • noun an instrument for conveying articulate sounds with increased force.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any infusorian belonging to Stentor and allied genera, in which the body is trumpet-shaped. See Stentor.
  • noun (Bot.), [Eng.] the trumpet creeper.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a trumpet shell, or triton.
  • noun (Bot.) an American climbing plant (Tecoma radicans) bearing clusters of large red trumpet-shaped flowers; -- called also trumpet flower, and in England trumpet ash.
  • noun (Zoöl.) The fistularia.
  • noun (Bot.) A West Indian name for several plants with trumpet-shaped flowers.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a botfly.
  • noun (Bot.) a twining plant (Lonicera sempervirens) with red and yellow trumpet-shaped flowers; -- called also trumpet flower.
  • noun (Bot.) a name of several plants of the genus Sarracenia.
  • noun (Mil.) the chief trumpeter of a band or regiment.
  • noun (Mus.) a monochord, having a thick string, sounded with a bow, and stopped with the thumb so as to produce the harmonic tones; -- said to be the oldest bowed instrument known, and in form the archetype of all others. It probably owes its name to “its external resemblance to the large speaking trumpet used on board Italian vessels, which is of the same length and tapering shape.”
  • noun (Zoöl.) any species of large marine univalve shells belonging to Triton and allied genera. See Triton, 2.
  • noun (Bot.) See Trumpetwood.
  • transitive verb To publish by, or as by, sound of trumpet; to noise abroad; to proclaim.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A musical instrument of the brass family, generally tuned to the key of B-flat.
  • noun In an orchestra or other musical group, a musician that plays the trumpet.
  • noun The cry of an elephant.
  • verb intransitive To sound loudly, be amplified
  • verb intransitive To play the trumpet.
  • verb intransitive Of an elephant, to make its cry.
  • verb transitive To proclaim loudly; to promote enthusiastically

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone; has a narrow tube and a flared bell and is played by means of valves
  • verb utter in trumpet-like sounds

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English trumpette, from Old French trompette, diminutive of trompe, horn, from Old High German trumpa.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English trumpette, trompette ("trumpet") from Old French trompette ("trumpet"), diminutive of trompe ("horn, trump, trumpet"), from Frankish *trumpa, *trumba (“trumpet”). Akin to Old High German trumpa, trumba ("horn, trumpet"), Middle Dutch tromme ("drum"), Middle Low German trumme ("drum"). More at drum.

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