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/tˈɪmpənəm/ Listen

noun

Tympanum n. (pl. E. tympanums, L. tympana)

(Anat.)

(a)

The ear drum, or middle ear. Sometimes applied incorrectly to the tympanic membrane. See Ear.

(b)

A chamber in the anterior part of the syrinx of birds.

(Zool.) One of the naked, inflatable air sacs on the neck of the prairie chicken and other species of grouse.

(Arch.)

(a)

The recessed face of a pediment within the frame made by the upper and lower cornices, being usually a triangular space or table.

(b)

The space within an arch, and above a lintel or a subordinate arch, spanning the opening below the arch.

(Mech.) A drum-shaped wheel with spirally curved partitions by which water is raised to the axis when the wheel revolves with the lower part of the circumference submerged, used for raising water, as for irrigation.

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Etymology of 'Tympanum'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tympanum" Quotes from Famous Books

... neck until her face was close to his, she darted at him a venomous, viper-like look, and, in a voice that seemed to cut into his tympanum like a sharp-toothed saw, she hissed, "Samuel Brohl, the man with the green eyes, sooner or ...

— Samuel Brohl & Company • Victor Cherbuliez

... Mrs. Pipelet, bawling in a voice sharp enough to split the tympanum of a deaf man. "Alfred! have at 'em, old darling! They wanted to behave improperly to thy 'Stasie! (Anastasia). Those rascals would take liberties with me! Pitch into them with your broom! call the oyster-woman ...

— The Mysteries of Paris V2 • Eugene Sue

... all persons who came within the range of his suspicion, and which was so ingeniously contrived and constructed that Dionysius, by applying his ear to a small hole, where the sounds were collected as upon a tympanum, could catch every syllable that was uttered in the cavern below, and could deal out his proscription and his vengeance accordingly upon all who might dare to dispute his authority or to complain of his cruelty. Or they may have imagined, perhaps, that he would be impatient ...

— Mosaics of Grecian History • Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson

... understand the intense pleasure with which one listens, whose auricular nerves are more highly developed. But this rare and soul-stirring enjoyment is many times accompanied, as in my case, with acute suffering whenever the tympanum is made to resound with the slightest discord. The most painful moments of my life, physically speaking, have been those in which I have been forced to listen to diabolical noises. A harsh, rasping sound has often ...

— Daybreak: A Romance of an Old World • James Cowan

... were the first words which struck upon my tympanum the next morning, when I had taken my seat at the further end of the school-room. I rose and threaded my way through two lines of boys, who put out their legs to trip me up in my passage through their ranks; and surmounting ...

— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat

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