Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To play (a stringed musical instrument) by stroking or brushing the strings.
  • intransitive verb To play (music) on a stringed instrument in this way.
  • intransitive verb To play a stringed instrument by strumming.
  • noun The act or sound of strumming.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To play unskilfully, or in a vulgar, noisy manner, on a stringed musical instrument of the lute or harp kind, as a guitar, banjo, or zither, or (by extension) on a pianoforte; thrum.
  • To play upon carelessly or unskilfully, as a stringed instrument; produce by rough manipulation of musical chords.
  • To produce a specified effect upon by strumming on a musical instrument.
  • noun A strumming; a careless or discordant performance on a stringed instrument.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb To play on an instrument of music, or as on an instrument, in an unskillful or noisy way; to thrum.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To play a guitar or other stringed instrument using various strings simultaneously.
  • noun The sound made by playing various strings of a stringed instrument simultaneously.
  • noun The act of strumming.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb sound the strings of (a string instrument)
  • noun sound of strumming

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps imitative.]

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Examples

  • Not surprisingly, the strum is the thing for Luna.

    Chicago Reader 2010

  • Not surprisingly, the strum is the thing for Luna.

    Chicago Reader 2010

  • Not surprisingly, the strum is the thing for Luna.

    Chicago Reader 2010

  • Not surprisingly, the strum is the thing for Luna.

    Chicago Reader 2010

  • Rock out by blasting enemies with riff combos and creating your own sounds with each "strum" of a chord!

    Gaming Target 2010

  • When you listen to Irish or Scottish tunes, keep your pick in hand and 'strum' (I like to use the outer seam of my pants on my thigh) along with the melody.

    Mandolin Cafe News 2009

  • A feature added in the 1.2 update is the ability to "strum" the chord by simply flicking your finger across the guitar neck.

    iProng Magazine 2008

  • You can't help but smile at his first Zorro-esque line, accompanied by a guitar strum: "Through the years I have been known by many names."

    'Like Crazy': From Cupid's Blunders, Wonders Joe Morgenstern 2011

  • You raise towns of brick on roads of dust, my flute, my drum, my lyre to strum, in lust.

    Archive 2009-07-01 Hal Duncan 2009

  • He picked up a trail-scarred banjo from the floor and began to strum a few wandering notes.

    THE FAITH OF MEN 2010

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