trumpet

From Middle English trumpet, trumpette, trompette (“trumpet”), from Old French trompette (“trumpet”), diminutive of trompe (“horn, trump, trumpet”), from Frankish *trumpa, *trumba (“trumpet”), ultimately imitative.

Cognate with Old High German trumpa, trumba (“horn, trumpet”), Middle Dutch tromme (“drum”), Middle Low German trumme (“drum”), Old Norse trumba (“pipe; trumpet”). More at drum.

Displaced native English beme, from Middle English beme, from Old English bīeme.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹʌmpɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmpɪt

trumpet (plural trumpets)

2. (music) A musical instrument of the brass family, generally tuned to the key of B-flat; by extension, any type of lip-vibrated aerophone, most often valveless and not chromatic.

   The royal herald sounded a trumpet to announce their arrival.

   • 1820, Encyclopaedia Britannica; Or A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature‎^[1], 6th edition, volume 20, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company, page 501:

     In trumpets for assisting the hearing, all reverbation of the trumpet must be avoided. It must be made thick, of the least elastic materials, and covered with cloth externally. For all reverbation lasts for a short time, and produces new sounds which mix with those which are coming in.

3. Someone who plays the trumpet; a trumpeter.

   The trumpets were assigned to stand at the rear of the orchestra pit.

   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

     Next day, he sent a trumpet to the general, with a detail of my misfortune, in hopes of retrieving what I had lost […] .

4. The cry of an elephant, or any similar loud cry.

   The large bull gave a basso trumpet as he charged the hunters.

5. (figurative) One who praises, or propagates praise, or is the instrument of propagating it.
   • 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     I will the banner from a trumpet take

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Preface”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     That great politician was pleased to have the greatest wit of those times […] to be the trumpet of his praises.

6. A funnel, or short flaring pipe, used as a guide or conductor, as for yarn in a knitting machine.
7. A kind of traffic interchange involving at least one loop ramp connecting traffic either entering or leaving the terminating expressway with the far lanes of the continuous highway.
   • 1974, O.T.A., Proceedings, page 4:

     The result of adopting the latter principle would be that even unimportant T-junctions would be in the form of trumpets or half-cloverleaf junctions.

8. A powerful reed stop in organs, having a trumpet-like sound.
9. Any of various flowering plants with trumpet-shaped flowers, for example, of the genus Collomia.
10. (US, slang, often capitalized) A supporter of Donald Trump, especially a fervent one.

• (musical instrument): beme, cornet, flugelhorn

• (musical instrument): natural trumpet, straight trumpet

• (musical instrument, opening): bell, codon, mouth

• 2009. Tipbook Trumpet and Trombone, Flugelhorn and Cornet: The Complete Guide. Hugo Pinksterboer. Pg. 141.

trumpet (third-person singular simple present trumpets, present participle trumpeting, simple past and past participle trumpeted)

1. (intransitive) To sound loudly, be amplified

   The music trumpeted from the speakers, hurting my ears.

2. (intransitive) To play the trumpet.

   Cedric made a living trumpeting for the change of passersby in the subway.

3. (transitive, intransitive) Of an elephant, to make its cry.

   The circus trainer cracked the whip, signaling the elephant to trumpet.

4. (transitive, intransitive) To give a loud cry like that of an elephant.
   • 2017, Gerhard Gehrke, Nineveh's Child:

     The bird trumpeted a second time. Dinah listened to the echo die around her.

5. (transitive) To proclaim loudly; to promote enthusiastically

   Andy trumpeted Jane's secret across the school, much to her embarrassment.

   • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:

     They did nothing but publish and trumpet all the reproaches they could devise against the Irish.

   • 1977 December 31, Sara Annie Fisher, “Film Shows Women Victimized And Victorious”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 26, page 9:

     One Sings, the Other Doesn't trumpets a gladsome triumph for feminists who have awaited the advent of unflinching women in film.

   • 2024 April 2, Howard LaFranchi, Anna Mulrine Grobe, “NATO has united the West for 75 years. Here’s why it still matters.”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     An anniversary summit in Washington in July is sure to trumpet a nearly eight-decade record of success.

• trumpet player
• trumpeter
• trumpetress

• trompette, trumpette, trompet, troumpette

From Old French trompette; equivalent to trumpe +‎ -et.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtrumpɛt/, /ˈtrumpit/

trumpet (plural trumpetes)

1. A trumpet; a small brass instrument.
2. One who uses or plays such an instrument.

• English: trumpet
• Scots: trumpet

• “trompet, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-03-16.

From Old French trompette (“trumpet”), diminutive of trompe (“horn, trump, trumpet”), from Frankish *trumpa, *trumba (“trumpet”), ultimately imitative.

• IPA^(key): /trɵmˈpeːt/

trumpet c

2. trumpet

• piccolotrumpet c
• signaltrumpet c
• fanfartrumpet c
• bastrumpet c
• aidatrumpet c

• flugor i trumpeten

• trumpeta (verb)
• trumpetare c (“trumpeter”)
• trumpetblåsare c (“trumpeter”)

• trumpet in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• trumpet in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• trumpet in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

trumpet

1. indefinite neuter singular of trumpen