tambour

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tambour

/ˈtæmbʊə(ɹ)/

Where it comes from

Borrowed from French tambour (“drum”), from Arabic طُنْبُور (ṭunbūr), from the Middle Persian ancestor of Classical Persian تنبور (tanbūr). Doublet of tabor and tanbur. Compare Armenian տաւիղ (tawiġ), and tabla.

noun tambours

countable, uncountable A small shallow drum.
countable, uncountable A drummer.
countable, uncountable A circular frame for embroidery. Recollect Lady Teazle when I saw you first—sitting at your tambour in a pretty figured linen gown—
countable, uncountable A rich kind of gold and silver embroidery.
countable, uncountable Silk or other material embroidered on a tambour.
countable, uncountable The capital of a Corinthian column.
countable, uncountable Synonym of drum (“cylindrical stone in the shaft of a column”).
Similar: drum
countable, uncountable 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.
countable, uncountable 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.
countable, uncountable In real tennis, a buttress-like obstruction in the main wall. One hazard is the tambour, a buttress which juts out and causes the ball to bounce unpredictably.
countable, uncountable A rolling top or front (as of a rolltop desk) of narrow strips of wood glued on canvas.

verb tambours · tambouring · tamboured

ambitransitive To embroider on a tambour (circular frame).

Translations

Every language

noun circular frame for embroidery

Português	bastidor
Русский	пя́льцы pjálʹcy

noun real tennis court feature

Français	tambour

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MLA

"tambour." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/tambour. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

tambour. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/tambour

Chicago

"tambour." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/tambour.

BibTeX

@misc{tambour_2026,
  title = {tambour},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/tambour},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}