trumpet

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Music A soprano brass wind instrument consisting of a long metal tube looped once and ending in a flared bell, the modern type being equipped with three valves for producing variations in pitch.
2. n. Something shaped or sounding like this instrument.
3. n. Music An organ stop that produces a tone like that of the brass wind instrument.
4. n. A resounding call, as that of the elephant.
5. v. Music To play a trumpet.
6. v. To give forth a resounding call.
7. v. To sound or proclaim loudly.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A musical wind-instrument, properly of metal, consisting of a cup-shaped mouthpiece, a long cylindrical or a short conical tube, and a flaring bell. The tones are produced by the vibrations of the player's lips. The fundamental tone of the tube depends on its length, but by varying the force of the breath and the method of embouchure, a considerable series of harmonies can also be produced, so that the compass of the instrument extends to about four octaves, the tones in the upper part of the series lying close together. By the addition of a slide, like that of the trombone, or of valves, as in the cornetà-pistons, or of finger-holes and keys, as in the key-bugle and the serpent, a large number of other tones can be secured, so as to give a very full and continuous compass, well adjusted as to intonation. The fundamental tone can be extensively varied in modern instruments by the use of crooks. The trumpet is the typical instrument of a very numerous family of instruments, of which the horn, the bugle, the cornet, the trombone, the tuba, the euphonium, and the serpent are prominent members. Then name trumpet itself has been applied to a large number of different instruments at different times. In ancient times two varieties were important—the one straight (the luba), and the other curved (the lituus), the latter being often made of wood or horn. In the medieval period the evolution of a great number of variants was rapid, with little emphasis on any one distinctively known as the trumpet. In the eighteenth century, and early in the nineteenth, the present orchestral trumpet reached its full development in a twice-doubled tube about five and a half feet long (or with the longest crook eight feet), without keys or valves, but with a short slide for correcting the intonation of certain of the upper tones and for adding intermediate tones. The artistic value of this instrument is great; but in most cases music written for it is now generally given to valve-instruments of the cornet kind, whose tone can never be as pure and true. The use of the trumpet was frequent with Bach and Handel, under the names clarino and principale. The instrument is most common now in works of a martial or festal character, but it is also useful for adding color to various combinations, especially with other wind-instruments. Music for the trumpet is traditionally written in the key of C, and the intended fundamental tone (to be obtained by the use of the appropriate crook) is indicated at the beginning, as “clarino in F” or “tromba in E.” Instruments of the trumpet class have always been used for military purposes, especially for signaling and in military bands.
2. n. In organ-building, a powerful reed-stop, having a tone somewhat resembling that of a trumpet.
3. n. A trumpeter; one who sounds a trumpet, either literally or figuratively.
4. n. A sound like that of a trumpet; a loud cry, especially that of the elephant.
5. n. A funnel- or trumpet-shaped conductor or guide used in many forms of drawing, doubling, spinning, or other machines to guide the slivers, rovings, yarns, wire, or other materials to the machine, and at once to compact them. It is made in many shapes, but in all the flaring trumpet-mouth is suggested.
6. n. The flaring mouth of a draw-head of a railway-car, serving to guide the coupling to the pin or other fastening.
7. n. A trumpet-shell or sea-trumpet; a triton. See cuts under chank and Triton.
8. n. One of the pitcher-plants, Sarracenia flava. See trumpetleaf.
9. To publish by sound of trumpet; hence, to blaze or noise abroad; proclaim; celebrate.
10. To form with a swell or in the shape of a bell or funnel.
11. To sound a trumpet; also, to emit a loud trumpet-like sound or cry, as an elephant.

Wiktionary

1. n. A musical instrument of the brass family, generally tuned to the key of B-flat.
2. n. In an orchestra or other musical group, a musician that plays the trumpet.
3. n. The cry of an elephant.
4. v. intransitive To sound loudly, be amplified
5. v. intransitive To play the trumpet.
6. v. intransitive Of an elephant, to make its cry.
7. v. transitive To proclaim loudly; to promote enthusiastically

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Mus.) A wind instrument of great antiquity, much used in war and military exercises, and of great value in the orchestra. In consists of a long metallic tube, curved (once or twice) into a convenient shape, and ending in a bell. Its scale in the lower octaves is limited to the first natural harmonics; but there are modern trumpets capable, by means of valves or pistons, of producing every tone within their compass, although at the expense of the true ringing quality of tone.
2. n. (Mil.) A trumpeter.
3. n. One who praises, or propagates praise, or is the instrument of propagating it.
4. n. (Mach) A funnel, or short, fiaring pipe, used as a guide or conductor, as for yarn in a knitting machine.
5. v. To publish by, or as by, sound of trumpet; to noise abroad; to proclaim.
6. v. To sound loudly, or with a tone like a trumpet; to utter a trumplike cry.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a brass musical instrument with a brilliant tone; has a narrow tube and a flared bell and is played by means of valves
2. v. utter in trumpet-like sounds
3. v. proclaim on, or as if on, a trumpet
4. v. play or blow on the trumpet