I think I might have seen this around here before, but anyway, offhand I can remember a few terms... it's quite important to note that the sound that comes out is made up of a lot of different frequencies. Every sound has a "frequency spectrum" so something that is low pitched (like a piano playing a low note) has a lot of lower frequencies plus some higher frequencies at the same time.
Complex/thin: Complex sounds have a lot of frequencies, you can hear like it has a lot of "depth" in the sound. Thin sounds are very simple, just a narrow range of frequencies, sounds very plain.
Smooth/trashy: Most China cymbals are trashy. They're complex and the frequencies are out of tune with each other, so it sounds discordant. This isn't really a bad thing: it gives it more presence and makes it sharper. The opposite are those harmonic, buttery sounding cymbals that sound super in-tune with itself.
Wet/dry: Wet is like ringy, dry sounds are more dead sounding. Like, well, splashing water is wet, after the splash you still hear sloshing around, but if you hit a tabletop it's very dry, you just have a short, dry sound.
Focused/open: Focused drums sound very compact, more punchy, I think also includes the change in the tone? While open drums ring more. It's like a focused tom is like TOM while an open tom is TOOuum.
Bright/Dark: Bright sounds are more shimmery and high pitched in general, what I have in mind is like when you hit a wine-glass and it rings. Dark sounds are the opposite.
Fat: Deep, broad-sounding. Like how people talk about a fat snare backbeat, you know how when you go to a studio a lot of the time the snare they have there are tuned horribly super-tight? That is almost the opposite of a fat sound.
Boomy: You know those big unmuffled bass drums or floor toms? When you hit it goes BOOOOOOoooooom? That's boomy.
Warm/mellow: Usually mid-range to low pitch, sounds like the kind of sound you'll expect from a good cello. When I think of warm or mellow sounds usually I think of wood (although this isn't always the case)
Punchy: A strong, focused sound... when you play it you can "feel" the impact. Like some good bass drums, when someone plays it you can feel the thump.
Cutting/blending: Instruments that cut are very obvious when they're played. When you crash a cutting cymbal, it stands out in the song. When you play a blending cymbal, it sounds like it's part of the music that's been going on so far. Usually this is because the cutting sound is in frequencies that are different from what the rest of the band is playing, so it stands out, while the blending sound is mainly in frequencies same as the rest of the song. Bright cymbals are usually more cutting.
Attack: The first part of the sound, a drum or cymbal with a strong attack, when you play it you'll feel like it's very fierce and when you play with others, it'll be quite obvious.
Wash: When you hit a cymbal, at first you hear the initial "attack", then it dies out slowly. The part after the attack is the wash. So a cymbal that stops ringing very fast has little wash, a cymbal that you hit and the sound goes on forever has a lot of wash.
That's all I can remember offhand like that, things like this you really have to hear it to understand lah. When typing this out, I kept wanting to type things like "A dry cymbal sounds very dry"
