trommel, noun
- Origin:
- AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, box, tin.
1. A tin trunk or storage box, especially a medicine chest (see also huis-apotheek), or the trunk in which a soldier stores his possessions. Also (occasionally) dimunitive form trommeltjie [see -ie].
1926 P. Smith Beadle (1929) 49Andrina carried a small, square, gaily painted tin canister, called a ‘trommeltje’, with padlock and key attached. In the trommeltje, in which the rusks were to be put, were little red cinnamon cakes for the miller’s children.
2. Mining. [Perhaps from U.S. English (adaptation of German trommel drum), reinforced by Afrikaans.] A cylindrical screen or sieve.
c1936 S. & E. Afr. Yr Bk & Guide 395The broken ore from the shaft is screened by steel gratings known as grizzlies, the portion passing through being sent direct to the stamp mill. The remainder is delivered into revolving trommels, where it is washed and is then discharged on to revolving tables or travelling belts for sorting.
A tin trunk or storage box, especially a medicine chest (see also huis-apotheek), or the trunk in which a soldier stores his possessions. Also (occasionally) dimunitive form trommeltjie [see -ie].
A cylindrical screen or sieve.
Visualise Quotations
Quotation summarySenses
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English.