club - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Inherited 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”).

A law enforcement baton

club (plural clubs)

  1. (countable) 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)‎[2], 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. (countable, golf) An implement to hit the ball in certain ball games, such as golf.
    2. (countable, rhythmic gymnastics) An item used during routines, the apparatus consisting of a set of two clubs.
  2. (countable) 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:[3]
        He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.
  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
  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 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.
  6. (humorous) Any set of people with a shared characteristic.
    Michael stood you up? Welcome to the club.
    • 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.
  7. 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.
  8. The slice of bread in the middle of a club sandwich.
  9. (World War I– World War II, military slang) The propeller of an aeroplane.[1]

association of members

heavy stick for use as weapon or plaything

hitting implement in certain ball games

rhythmic gymnastics: part of an apparatus

establishment that provides staged entertainment

playing card symbol, ♣

playing card marked with symbol ♣

Translations to be checked

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.
  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.
    We went clubbing in Ibiza.
    When I was younger, I used to go clubbing almost every night.
    • 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
  6. (intransitive) To pay an equal or proportionate share of a common charge or expense.
  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
  1. (transitive, military) To turn the breech of (a musket) uppermost, so as to use it as a club.

to hit with a club

to join together to form a group

  1. ^ Lighter, Jonathan (1972), “The Slang of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, 1917-1919: An Historical Glossary”, in American Speech‎[1], volume 47, number 1/2, page 34

Borrowed from English club.

club m (plural clubs)

  1. (countable) club (an association of members joining together for some common purpose, especially sports or recreation)
  2. (countable, golf) club (an implement to hit the ball in certain ball games, such as golf)

Borrowed from English club. Doublet of klomp.

club m (plural clubs, diminutive clubje n or (Hollandic) cluppie n)

  1. (countable) club (an association of members joining together for some common purpose, especially sports or recreation)
  2. (countable, golf) club (an implement to hit the ball in certain ball games, such as golf)
  3. nightclub
    Synonyms: nachtclub, discotheek

Borrowed from English club.

club m (plural clubs)

  1. (countable) club (an association of members joining together for some common purpose, especially sports or recreation)
  2. (countable, golf) club (an implement to hit the ball in certain ball games, such as golf)
    Synonym: (Quebec) bâton

Unadapted borrowing from English club.

club m (invariable)

  1. (countable) club (an association of members joining together for some common purpose, especially sports or recreation)

  2. (countable, golf) club (an implement to hit the ball in certain ball games, such as golf)

  3. ^ club in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

club

  1. alternative form of clubbe

Borrowed from French club.

club n (plural cluburi)

  1. club

Borrowed from English club.

club m (plural clubs or clubes)

  1. (countable) club (an association of members joining together for some common purpose, especially sports or recreation)
    Synonyms: asociación, cofradía, gremio
    • 2019 January 21, Pablo Vande Rusten, “Diez razones para practicar fútbol americano (¡en España!)”, in El País‎[9], archived from the original on 23 September 2025:
      “A principios de los 90 los clubes creamos una liga nacional, la SFL (Spanish Football League), que no funcionó”, relata el presidente del equipo, Enrique Martín.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2024 November 8, Kaitlan Collins, “Batallas desde el patio de Mar-a-Lago: cómo el equipo de Trump compite por los puestos”, in CNN en Español‎[10]:
      Esas conversaciones en voz baja se convirtieron ahora en una auténtica batalla que se desarrolla directamente desde el patio del club Mar-a-Lago de Trump en Palm Beach, Florida.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)