What is "club"

Club \Club\ (kl[u^]b), n. [Cf. Icel. klubba, klumba, club, klumbuf[=o]ir a clubfoot, SW. klubba club, Dan. klump lump, klub a club, G. klumpen clump, kolben club, and E. clump.]

1. A heavy staff of wood, usually tapering, and wielded with the hand; a weapon; a cudgel.

   But make you ready your stiff bats and clubs; Rome and her rats are at the point of battle.
   --Shak.

2. [Cf. the Spanish name bastos, and Sp. baston staff, club.] Any card of the suit of cards having a figure like the trefoil or clover leaf. (pl.) The suit of cards having such figure.

3. 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.

   They talked At wine, in clubs, of art, of politics.
   --Tennyson.

   He [Goldsmith] was one of the nine original members of that celebrated fraternity which has sometimes been called the Literary Club, but which has always disclaimed that epithet, and still glories in the simple name of the Club.
   --Macaulay.

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

   They laid down the club.
   --L'Estrange.

   We dined at a French house, but paid ten shillings for our part of the club.
   --Pepys.

   Club law, government by violence; lynch law; anarchy.
   --Addison.

   Club root (Bot.), a disease of cabbages, by which the roots become distorted and the heads spoiled.

   Club topsail (Naut.), a kind of gaff topsail, used mostly by yachts having a fore-and-aft rig. It has a short ``club'' or ``jack yard'' to increase its spread.

Club \Club\, v. i.

1. To form a club; to combine for the promotion of some common object; to unite.

   Till grosser atoms, tumbling in the stream Of fancy, madly met, and clubbed into a dream.
   --Dryden.

2. To pay on equal or proportionate share of a common charge or expense; to pay for something by contribution.

   The owl, the raven, and the bat, Clubbed for a feather to his hat.
   --Swift.

3. (Naut.) To drift in a current with an anchor out.

Club \Club\ (kl[u^]b), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Clubbed (kl[u^]bd); p. pr. & vb. n. Clubbing.]

1. To beat with a club.

2. (Mil.) To 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.
   --Farrow.

3. To unite, or contribute, for the accomplishment of a common end; as, to club exertions.

4. To raise, or defray, by a proportional assesment; as, to club the expense.

   To club a musket (Mil.), to turn the breach uppermost, so as to use it as a club.

c.1200, "thick stick used as a weapon," from Old Norse klubba "cudgel" or a similar Scandinavian source (compare Swedish klubba, Danish klubbe), assimilated from Proto-Germanic *klumbon, related to clump (n.). Old English words for this were sagol, cycgel. Specific sense of "bat used in games" is from mid-15c.\n

\nThe club suit in the deck of cards (1560s) bears the correct name (Spanish basto, Italian bastone), but the pattern adopted on English cards is the French trefoil. Compare Danish klőver, Dutch klaver "a club at cards," literally "a clover."\n

\nThe social club (1660s) apparently evolved from this word from the verbal sense "gather in a club-like mass" (1620s), then, as a noun, "association of people" (1640s).\n\nWe now use the word clubbe for a sodality in a tavern. [John Aubrey, 1659]\n

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\nAdmission to membership of clubs is commonly by ballot. Clubs are now an important feature of social life in all large cities, many of them occupying large buildings containing reading-rooms, libraries, restaurants, etc. [Century Dictionary, 1902]\n

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\nI got a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it. [Rufus T. Firefly]\nClub soda is by 1881, originally a proprietary name (Cantrell & Cochrane, Dublin). Club sandwich recorded by 1899, apparently as a type of sandwich served in clubs. Club car is from 1890, American English, originally one well-appointed and reserved for members of a club run by the railway company; later of any railway car fitted with chairs instead of benches, and other amenities (1917). Hence club for "class of fares between first-class and transit" (1978).\n\nThe club car is one of the most elaborate developments of the entire Commuter idea. It is a comfortable coach, which is rented to a group of responsible men coming either from a single point or a chain of contiguous points. The railroad charges from $250 to $300 a month for the use of this car in addition to the commutation fares, and the "club" arranges dues to cover this cost and the cost of such attendants and supplies as it may elect to place on its roving house.

[Edward Hungerford, "The Modern Railroad," 1911]

"to hit with a club," 1590s, from club (v.). Meaning "gather in a club-like mass" is from 1620s. Related: Clubbed; clubbing.\n\nCLUB, verb (military). -- In manoeuvring troops, so to blunder the word of command that the soldiers get into a position from which they cannot extricate themselves by ordinary tactics.

[Farmer & Henley]

n. A heavy stick intended for use as a weapon or plaything^{(w Indian clubs Wp)}. vb. 1 (context transitive English) to hit with a club. 2 (context intransitive English) To join together to form a group. 3 (context intransitive transitive English) To combine into a club-shaped mass. 4 (context intransitive English) To go to nightclubs. 5 (context intransitive English) To pay an equal or proportionate share of a common charge or expense. 6 (context transitive English) To raise, or defray, by a proportional assessment. 7 (context nautical English) To drift in a current with an anchor out. 8 (context military English) To throw, or allow to fall, into confusion.

1. v. unite with a common purpose; "The two men clubbed together"

2. gather and spend time together; "They always club together"

3. strike with a club or a bludgeon [syn: bludgeon]

4. [also: clubbing, clubbed]

1. n. a team of professional baseball players who play and travel together; "each club played six home games with teams in its own division" [syn: baseball club, ball club, nine]

2. a formal association of people with similar interests; "he joined a golf club"; "they formed a small lunch society"; "men from the fraternal order will staff the soup kitchen today" [syn: society, guild, gild, lodge, order]

3. stout stick that is larger at one end; "he carried a club in self defense"; "he felt as if he had been hit with a club"

4. a building occupied by a club; "the clubhouse needed a new roof" [syn: clubhouse]

5. golf equipment used by a golfer to hit a golf ball [syn: golf club, golf-club]

6. a playing card in the minor suit of clubs (having one or more black trefoils on it); "he led a small club"; "clubs were trumps"

7. a spot that is open late at night and that provides entertainment (as singers or dancers) as well as dancing and food and drink; "don't expect a good meal at a cabaret"; "the gossip columnist got his information by visiting nightclubs every night"; "he played the drums at a jazz club" [syn: cabaret, nightclub, nightspot]

8. [also: clubbing, clubbed]

A club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal. A service club, for example, exists for voluntary or charitable activities; there are clubs devoted to hobbies and sports, social activities clubs, political and religious clubs, and so forth.

Club may refer to:

A club (also known as a cudgel, baton, truncheon, cosh, nightstick, or bludgeon) is among the simplest of all weapons: a short staff or stick, usually made of wood, wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times. There are several examples of blunt-force trauma caused by clubs in the past, including at the site of Nataruk in Turkana, Kenya, described as the scene of a prehistoric conflict between bands of hunter-gatherers 10,000 years ago. In popular culture, clubs are associated with primitive cultures, especially cavemen.

Most clubs are small enough to be swung with one hand, although larger clubs may require the use of two to be effective. Various specialized clubs are used in martial arts and other fields, including the law-enforcement baton. The military mace is a more sophisticated descendant of the club, typically made of metal and featuring a spiked, knobbed or flanged head attached to a shaft.

The wounds inflicted by a club are generally known as bludgeoning or blunt-force trauma injuries.

Club is the brand name for a series of Irish carbonated soft drinks produced in Ireland by Britvic Ireland and previously by Cantrell & Cochrane (C&C). It is bottled by the Britvic plant in Dublin. The series includes Club Orange, Club Lemon, Club Rock Shandy (a mixture of the orange and lemon flavours) and Club Apple soft drinks.

Club is a monthly American pornographic magazine which is a spin-off publication of the United Kingdom's Club International. Club features sexually oriented articles, video reviews, and pictorials that include hardcore pornography, masturbation, dildo usage, and lesbianism.

In zoology, a club is a bony mass at the end of the tail of some dinosaurs and of some mammals, most notably the ankylosaurids and the glyptodonts, as well as meiolaniid turtles. It is thought that this was a form of defensive armour or weapon that was used to defend against predators, much in the same way as a thagomizer, possessed by stegosaurids, though at least in glyptodonts it is hypothesized it was used in fighting for mating rights. Among dinosaurs, the club was present mainly in ankylosaurids, although the sauropod Shunosaurus also possessed a tail club. The tail club is most often depicted on Ankylosaurus, especially in encounters with larger predators such as Tyrannosaurus. Whether Ankylosaurus was actually able to swing its tail with enough force to prove unassailable or not however is yet to be proven.

Club (or Kensitas Club as it was once known), is a Scottish brand of cigarette distributed by Gallaher tobacco and available only in the United Kingdom. Club comes in a distinct blue packaging with club written on it and a lion's head on the packet. Each cigarette produces 10 mg of carbon monoxide, 10 mg of tar and 0.9 mg of nicotine.