club

From Middle English clubbe, from Old Norse klubba, klumba (“cudgel”), from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“clip, clasp; clump, lump; log, block”). Cognate with English clump, cloud, Latin globus, glomus; and perhaps related to Middle Low German kolve (“bulb”), German Kolben (“butt, bulb, club”).

• enPR: klŭb, IPA^(key): /klʌb/

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• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA^(key): /klʊb/
• Rhymes: -ʌb

club (plural clubs)

2. An association of members joining together for some common purpose, especially sports or recreation.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors. […] In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

   1. (archaic) The fees associated with belonging to such a club.
      • 1783, Benjamin Franklin:^[2]

        He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.

4. A heavy object, often a kind of stick, intended for use as a bludgeoning weapon or a plaything.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.

   • 2021 March 10, Drachinifel, 5:50 from the start, in Guadalcanal Campaign - The Big Night Battle: Night 1 (IJN 3(?) : 2 USN)‎^[3], archived from the original on 17 October 2022:

     The attack also afforded Helena to a front-seat view of literal air-to-air melee combat, as one Wildcat pilot of the Cactus Air Force, who was swooping in to help break up the attack, found himself out of machine-gun ammo; instead, he dropped his landing gear, positioned himself above the nearest bomber, and begun beating it to death, in midair, using his landing gear as clubs. After a bit of evasive action that the fighter easily kept up with, the repeated slamming broke something important, and the bomber spiralled down into the sea.

   1. An implement to hit the ball in certain ball games, such as golf.
5. A joint charge of expense, or any person's share of it; a contribution to a common fund.
   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     They laid down the Club.

   • 17 Mat 1660, Samuel Pepys, diary

     first we went and dined at a French house , but paid 10s for our part of the club

6. An establishment that provides staged entertainment, often with food and drink, such as a nightclub.

   She was sitting in a jazz club, sipping wine and listening to a bass player's solo.

7. (card games) A black clover shape (♣), one of the four symbols used to mark the suits of playing cards.
   1. A playing card marked with such a symbol.

      I've got only one club in my hand.

8. (humorous) Any set of people with a shared characteristic.
   • 2019, Tony Perrottet, “A Deep Dive Into the Plans to Take Tourists to the ‘Titanic’”, in Smithsonian Magazine:

     He also wanted to be only the second person to travel solo to at least that depth, the other being James Cameron, who in 2012 took an Australian-built sub into the Mariana Trench, reaching Challenger Deep, the ocean’s deepest point, touching down at close to 36,000 feet. “That’s a nice club to be a part of,” Rush says. Two weeks later, that club welcomed a new member, when a Texas businessman named Victor Vescovo reached 27,000 feet in his own experimental submersible.

   You also hate Night Court?  Join the club.

   Michael stood you up?  Welcome to the club.

9. A club sandwich.
   • 2004, Joanne M. Anderson, Small-town Restaurants in Virginia, page 123:

     Crab cake sandwiches, tuna melts, chicken clubs, salmon cakes, and prime-rib sandwiches are usually on the menu.

10. The slice of bread in the middle of a club sandwich.
11. (World War I– World War II, military slang) The propeller of an aeroplane.^[1]

• (association of members): confraternity
• (weapon): cudgel
• (sports association): team
• See also Thesaurus:stick

• sports club

• → German: Klub
• → Greek: κλαμπ (klamp), γκλομπ (gklomp), γκλοπ n (gklop), κλομπ n (klomp)
• → Malay: kelab
• → Tokelauan: kalapu

• wand

club (third-person singular simple present clubs, present participle clubbing, simple past and past participle clubbed)

1. (transitive) To hit with a club.

   He clubbed the poor dog.

2. To score a victory over by a large margin.
   • 2016 June 3, “Andy Murray enjoys stunning win against Stan Wawrinka to reach first French Open final”, in Eurosport‎^[4]:

     [Andy] Murray dropped serve only once in the match, in the 10th game of the third set, and was simply too good for [Stan] Wawrinka, who was left confused by the variety, inventiveness and power hitting of Murray from deep in the court as an opponent who clubbed [Novak] Djokovic in last year's final was simply overwhelmed despite the Parisian crowd attempting to inspire a comeback.

   • 2019 January 16, “Ashleigh Barty loses coach but wins latest Australian Open encounter”, in The Guardian‎^[5]:

     Playing with freedom and no fear, Ashleigh Barty has powered into the Australian Open third round without even a coach. Barty clubbed China’s Yafan Wang 6-2, 6-3 on Wednesday before revealing she had been largely flying solo during her charge to the last 32 for only the second time.

3. (intransitive) To join together to form a group.
   • 1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     Till grosser atoms, tumbling in the stream / Of fancy, madly met, and clubb'd into a dream.

4. (intransitive, transitive) To combine into a club-shaped mass.

   a medical condition with clubbing of the fingers and toes

5. (intransitive) To go to nightclubs.
   • 1997, Sarah Penny, The whiteness of bones‎^[6], page 4:

     In London you lived on beans, but you clubbed all night

   • 2011, Mackenzie Phillips, High on Arrival‎^[7]:

     I was rarely there —I was clubbing at night, sleeping during the day, back and forth to L.A.—but I had more money than I knew what to do with.

   • 2013, Fabrice Humbert, Sila's Fortune‎^[8]:

     He had been clubbing until the early hours

   We went clubbing in Ibiza.

   When I was younger, I used to go clubbing almost every night.

6. (intransitive) To pay an equal or proportionate share of a common charge or expense.
   • 1730, Jonathan Swift, Death and Daphne:

     The owl, the raven, and the bat / Clubb'd for a feather to his hat.

7. (transitive) To raise, or defray, by a proportional assessment.

   to club the expense

8. (nautical) To drift in a current with an anchor out.
9. (military) To throw, or allow to fall, into confusion.
   • 1876, Major-General G. E. Voyle, Captain G. De Saint-Clair-Stevenson, F.R.G.S., A Military Dictionary, Comprising Terms, Scientific and Otherwise, Connected with the Science of War, Third Edition, London: William Clowes & Sons, page 80:

     To club a battalion implies a temporary inability in the commanding officer to restore any given body of men to their natural front in line or column.

10. (transitive) To unite, or contribute, for the accomplishment of a common end.

    to club exertions

    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:

      For instance, let us suppose that Homer and Virgil, Aristotle and Cicero, Thucydides and Livy, could have met all together, and have clubbed their several talents to have composed a treatise on the art of dancing: I believe it will be readily agreed they could not have equalled the excellent treatise which Mr Essex hath given us on that subject, entitled, The Rudiments of Genteel Education.

    • 1854, The Eclectic Review, page 147:

      You see a person, who, added to yourself, would make, you think, a glorious being, and you proceed to idealize accordingly; you stand on his head, and outtower the tallest; you club your brains with his, and are wiser than the wisest; you add the heat of your heart to his, and produce a very furnace of love.

11. (transitive, military) To turn the breech of (a musket) uppermost, so as to use it as a club.

• club together
• clubbing
• go clubbing

Borrowed from English club.

club m (plural clubs)

1. club (association)
2. (golf) club

• club escacs
• club esportiu
• club nàutic
• club nocturn

• “club”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024

Borrowed from English club.

• IPA^(key): /klʏp/

• Audio:

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• Hyphenation: club
• Rhymes: -ʏp

club m (plural clubs, diminutive clubje n)

1. club, association, organisation
2. (golf) club

• The diminutive clubje is often used derogatorily and tends to connote corruption, collusion and/or subversion.

• clubhuis
• damclub
• golfclub
• handbalclub
• schaakclub
• skiclub
• stamclub
• tennisclub
• voetbalclub

Borrowed from English club.

• (France) IPA^(key): /klœb/, /klyb/
• (Quebec) IPA^(key): /klʏb/, /klɔb/

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club m (plural clubs)

1. club (association)
2. (golf) club

   Synonym: (Quebec) bâton

• bienvenue au club
• soda club

• → Romanian: club
• → Turkish: kulüp

• “club”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Unadapted borrowing from English club.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklab/, /ˈklɛb/, /ˈklub/, /ˈkløb/^[1]

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -ab, -ɛb, -ub
• Hyphenation: clùb

club m (invariable)

1. club (association)
2. club (golf implement)

club

1. Alternative form of clubbe

Borrowed from French club.

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club n (plural cluburi)

1. club

Borrowed from English club.

• IPA^(key): /ˈklub/ [ˈkluβ̞]

• Audio (Colombia):

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• Rhymes: -ub
• Syllabification: club

club m (plural clubs or clubes)

1. club (association)

   Synonyms: asociación, cofradía, gremio

• “club”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28