trumpet

Etymology

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.

noun

1. 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.
   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. 1820, Encyclopaedia Britannica; Or A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature, 6th edition, volume 20, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Company, page 501
2. Someone who plays the trumpet; a trumpeter.
   The trumpets were assigned to stand at the rear of the orchestra pit.
3. The cry of an elephant, or any similar loud cry.
   The large bull gave a basso trumpet as he charged the hunters.
4. (figurative) One who praises, or propagates praise, or is the instrument of propagating it.
5. A funnel, or short flaring pipe, used as a guide or conductor, as for yarn in a knitting machine.
6. 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.
   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. 1974, O.T.A., Proceedings, page 4
7. A powerful reed stop in organs, having a trumpet-like sound.
8. Any of various flowering plants with trumpet-shaped flowers, for example, of the genus Collomia.
9. (US, slang, often capitalized) A supporter of Donald Trump, especially a fervent one.

verb

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.
   The bird trumpeted a second time. Dinah listened to the echo die around her. 2017, Gerhard Gehrke, Nineveh's Child
5. (transitive) To proclaim loudly; to promote enthusiastically
   Andy trumpeted Jane's secret across the school, much to her embarrassment.