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trumpet

Pronunciation: /ˈtrʌmpɪt/
Translate trumpet | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of trumpet

noun

  • 1a brass musical instrument with a flared bell and a bright, penetrating tone. The modern instrument has the tubing looped to form a straight-sided coil, with three valves.
  • an organ reed stop with a quality resembling that of a trumpet.
  • a sound resembling that of a trumpet, especially the loud cry of an elephant: his voice blazed to a trumpet in his indignation
  • something shaped like a trumpet, especially the tubular corona of a daffodil flower.
  • 2 (trumpets) a North American pitcher plant.
    • Genus Sarracenia, family Sarraceniaceae: several species, in particular yellow trumpets (S. flava)

verb (trumpets, trumpeting, trumpeted)

  • 1 [no object] play a trumpet: (as adjective trumpeting)figures of two trumpeting angels
  • make a loud, penetrating sound resembling that of a trumpet:wild elephants trumpeting in the bush
  • 2 [with object] proclaim widely or loudly:the press trumpeted another defeat for the government

Phrases

blow one's (own) trumpet

chiefly British talk boastfully about one’s achievements:he refused to blow his own trumpet and blushingly declined to speak

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French trompette, diminutive of trompe (see trump2). The verb dates from the mid 16th century

trumpet in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of trumpet in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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