Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A stout heavy stick, usually thicker at one end, suitable for use as a weapon; a cudgel.
  • noun An implement used in some games to drive a ball, especially a stick with a protruding head used in golf.
  • noun Something resembling a club.
  • noun A black figure shaped like a trefoil or clover leaf on certain playing cards.
  • noun A playing card with this figure.
  • noun The suit of cards represented by this figure.
  • noun A group of people organized for a common purpose, especially a group that meets regularly.
  • noun The building, room, or other facility used for the meetings of an organized group.
  • noun Sports An athletic team or organization.
  • noun A nightclub.
  • intransitive verb To strike or beat with a club or similar implement.
  • intransitive verb To use (a firearm) as a club by holding the barrel and hitting with the butt end.
  • intransitive verb To gather or combine (hair, for example) into a clublike mass.
  • intransitive verb To contribute (money or resources) to a joint or common purpose.
  • intransitive verb To join or combine for a common purpose; form a club.
  • intransitive verb To go to or frequent nightclubs.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A company of persons organized to meet for social intercourse, or for the promotion of some common object, as literature, science, politics, etc.
  • noun A club-house.
  • noun The united expenses of a company; joint charge; mess account.
  • noun The contribution of an individual to a joint charge.
  • noun A stick or piece of wood suitable for being wielded in the hand as a weapon; a thick, heavy stick used as a weapon; a cudgel.
  • noun In the games of golf and shinty, a staff with a crooked and heavy head for driving the ball. See golf-club, 1.
  • noun A round solid mass; a clump; a knot.
  • noun A playing-card that is marked with trefoils in the plural, the suit so marked.
  • noun In entomology, a suddenly broadened outer portion of an antenna, formed by two, three, or more enlarged terminal joints, as in most weevils. See cut under clavate.
  • noun In fungi of the family Clavariei, the claviform receptacle or one of its branches.
  • noun A small spar to which the foot of a gaff-topsail or the clue of a staysail or jib is bent to make the sail set to the best advantage.
  • To combine or join together, as a number of individuals, for a common purpose; form a club: as, to club together to form a library.
  • Specifically, to contribute to a common fund; combine to raise money for a certain purpose.
  • To be united in producing a certain effect; combine into a whole.
  • To unite; add together by contribution; combine.
  • To divide into an average amount for each individual concerned: as, to club the expense of an entertainment.
  • Nautical, to drift down a current with an anchor dragging on the bottom.
  • noun The expanded end of the tentacular arms in decacerous cephalopods.
  • To beat with a club.
  • To convert into a club; use as a club: as, to club a musket (by taking hold of the barrel and striking with the butt).
  • To unite, as the hair, in a solid mass or knot resembling a club.
  • Milit., to demoralize or confuse by a blunder in tactical manœuvers: as, to club a battalion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To beat with a club.
  • transitive verb (Mil.) To throw, or allow to fall, into confusion.
  • transitive verb To unite, or contribute, for the accomplishment of a common end.
  • transitive verb To raise, or defray, by a proportional assesment.
  • transitive verb (Mil.) to turn the breach uppermost, so as to use it as a club.
  • noun A heavy staff of wood, usually tapering, and wielded with the hand; a weapon; a cudgel.
  • noun Any card of the suit of cards having a figure like the trefoil or clover leaf. (pl.) The suit of cards having such figure.
  • noun An association of persons for the promotion of some common object, as literature, science, politics, good fellowship, etc.; esp. an association supported by equal assessments or contributions of the members.
  • noun A joint charge of expense, or any person's share of it; a contribution to a common fund.
  • noun government by violence; lynch law; anarchy.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old Norse klubba.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English clubbe, from Old Norse klubba ("cudgel"), cognate with Old High German kolbo ("club") and German Kolbe ("club")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word club.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • At the inn where we put up, some time after our arrival, there alighted a tradesman of Toledo on his way to Segorba. We clubbed our suppers.

    - Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 5 ch. 1

    September 19, 2008