club

plural clubs

1. countableA heavy object, often a kind of stick, intended for use as a bludgeoning weapon or a plaything.

   2 more examples

   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.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   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.

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

   1. countablegolfAn implement to hit the ball in certain ball games, such as golf.
   2. countablerhythmic gymnasticsAn item used during routines, the apparatus consisting of a set of two clubs.
2. countableAn association of members joining together for some common purpose, especially sports or recreation.

   1 more example

   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.

   1892, Walter Besant, chapter III, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

   1. archaiccountableThe fees associated with belonging to such a club.

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

      1783, Benjamin Franklin

3. A joint charge of expense, or any person's share of it; a contribution to a common fund.

   17 Mat 1660, Samuel Pepys, diary first we went and dined at a French house , but paid 10s for our part of the club

   1 more example

   They laid down the Club.

   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

4. 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.

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

      I've got only one club in my hand.

6. humorousAny set of people with a shared characteristic.

   You also hate Night Court? Join the club.

   2 more examples

   Michael stood you up? Welcome to the club.

   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.

   2019, Tony Perrottet, “A Deep Dive Into the Plans to Take Tourists to the ‘Titanic’”, in Smithsonian Magazine

7. A club sandwich.

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

   2004, Joanne M. Anderson, Small-town Restaurants in Virginia, page 123

8. The slice of bread in the middle of a club sandwich.
9. The propeller of an aeroplane.
10. mathematicsA set which is both closed and unbounded.

present singular third person clubs · participle present clubbing · participle past clubbed · past clubbed

1. transitiveTo hit with a club.

   He clubbed the poor dog.

   1 more example

   "We must club the seals," I announced, when convinced of my poor marksmanship. "I have heard the sealers talk about clubbing them."

   1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC

2. To score a victory over by a large margin.

   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.

   2019 January 16, “Ashleigh Barty loses coach but wins latest Australian Open encounter”, in The Guardian

   1 more example

   [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.

   2016 June 3, “Andy Murray enjoys stunning win against Stan Wawrinka to reach first French Open final”, in Eurosport

3. intransitiveTo join together to form a group.

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

   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

4. intransitivetransitiveTo combine into a club-shaped mass.

   a medical condition with clubbing of the fingers and toes

5. intransitiveTo go to nightclubs.

   We went clubbing in Ibiza.

   4 more examples

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

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

   1997, Sarah Penny, The whiteness of bones, page 4

   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.

   2011, Mackenzie Phillips, High on Arrival

   He had been clubbing until the early hours

   2013, Fabrice Humbert, Sila's Fortune

6. intransitiveTo pay an equal or proportionate share of a common charge or expense.

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

   1730, Jonathan Swift, Death and Daphne

7. transitiveTo raise, or defray, by a proportional assessment.

   to club the expense

8. nauticalTo drift in a current with an anchor out.
9. governmentTo throw, or allow to fall, into confusion.

   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.

   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

10. transitiveTo unite, or contribute, for the accomplishment of a common end.

    to club exertions

    2 more examples

    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.

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

    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.

    1854, The Eclectic Review, page 147

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