tympan
noun/ˈtɪmpən/
Etymology From Medieval Latin tympanum.
1
Media, Printing, Publishing A piece of cloth padding placed under the platen of a letterpress to distribute the pressure on the sheet being printed.
- As the pressman returns the inkballs to the inkstone, the journeyman closes the frisket and tympan.2000, Richard L. Saunders, Printing in Deseret:
2
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music The stretched membrane of a drum.
3
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A percussion instrument consisting of a hollow cylinder with such a membrane at each end.
4
Architecture A tympanum.
5
The tympanum of the ear.
- But soon I grew used to these sounds, and then I understood as well as ever, that is to say fully one half of what won its way past my tympan.1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:
- Derived terms
- tympanize