tympanize
tympanize verb: to stretch, as a skin over the head of a drum; to make into a drum or drumhead, or cause to act or sound like a drum.
Verb
tympanize (third-person singular simple present tympanizes, present participle tympanizing, simple past and past participle tympanized)
- To stretch, as a skin over the head of a drum; to make into a drum or drumhead, or cause to act or sound like a drum.
- Thou haſt plaid muſique to my dolefull ſoule; / And vvhen my heart vvas tympaniz'd vvith griefe, / Thou lauedſt out ſome into thy heart from mine, / And kept it ſo from burſting; […]c. 1613–1618 (first performance), Thomas Goffe, The Tragedy of Orestes, […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for Richard Meighen, […], published 1633, →OCLC, Act IIII, scene ii, signature F2, verso
- Tympanized, as other saints of God were.1807, B. Oley, "Prefatory View of Life and Virtues of the Author", in The Clergyman's Instructor by John Randolph
- To drum.
- prosperity does so tympanize mens souls , and intrance them from themselves ; that they forget they had a Maker.1655, Richard Younge, A Christian Library […]
Forms of tympanize
| third-person singular present | tympanizes |
|---|---|
| present participle | tympanizing |
| past participle | tympanized |
| past | tympanized |
Origin of tympanize
From tympan + -ize.
Questions about tympanize
- What does tympanize mean?
- Tympanize means to stretch, as a skin over the head of a drum; to make into a drum or drumhead, or cause to act or sound like a drum.
- What part of speech is tympanize?
- Tympanize is a verb.
- What is the past tense of tympanize?
- The past tense of tympanize is tympanized.
Words near tympanize in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tympanize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “tympanize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tympanize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.