clubs

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of club.

   Police recovered two wooden clubs from the scene of the brawl.

   Many freshmen join clubs in their first month to make new friends.

   Note

   An ordinary -s plural that carries every noun sense of club: cudgels, golf clubs, societies, and shares of a common expense. An archaic use applied the word to membership fees themselves. The same spelling also names the card suit and the gymnast's pair of clubs. A phrase like "three clubs" therefore needs its surroundings, such as a card table, a golf bag or a campus, to be read correctly.

2. 2
   noun

   One of the four suits in a deck of playing cards, identified by the symbol ♣.

   He held three high clubs and a pair of kings.

   The dealer turned over the queen of clubs as the final card.

   Note

   At the card table the suit is named in the plural, while a single card of it is a club. Cards are identified as the queen of clubs or the ace of clubs, and players describe a holding by the suit: three high clubs, a run of clubs. In print, the symbol ♣ often stands in for the word.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of club.

   The poacher clubs the animal and drags it into the brush.

   In the legend, the giant clubs the castle gate to splinters.

   Note

   The present-tense verb carries both the violent and the sociable uses of club. With an object, it means striking or trouncing: the poacher clubs a hare, or the home side clubs its rivals. Without one, it means going out to nightclubs (she clubs most weekends), joining with others, or chipping in a share of a cost. Whether an object follows usually tells you which meaning is intended.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A rhythmic gymnastics apparatus consisting of a matched pair of handheld clubs.

   He dropped one of his clubs during the final throw of the set.

   The judges inspected the clubs for damage before the routine began.

   Note

   Rhythmic gymnastics treats the pair as one apparatus: the word names a matched set held one in each hand, not two separate pieces of equipment. A gymnast drops one of her clubs but competes with the clubs as a single choice of apparatus. The name then passes to the routine performed with them.

5. 5
   nounmetonymicallycountable

   A rhythmic gymnastics program choreographed and performed with the pair of clubs as the chosen apparatus.

   Her clubs featured three high tosses and a blind catch behind the back.

   The crowd applauded as she finished her clubs without a single drop.

   Note

   Here the name of the equipment stands for the performance, so her clubs means the program she performs, not the objects in her hands. Verbs of performance signal this use: she finished her clubs, or her clubs featured a blind catch. Dropping or inspecting the clubs points back to the apparatus itself.

6. 6
   noun

   Alternative form of clumps.

   We played clubs by the fire, firing questions at Aunt Ruth and Dad until someone worked out that they had chosen the Eiffel Tower.

   Twenty questions into a round of clubs, the guessers finally discovered that the hidden object was a teapot.

   Note

   A guessing game under a variant name: two players secretly choose a word or thing, and the rest question them until someone discovers it. Like clumps, the form it varies from, it ends in -s yet names a single game. As a subject it therefore takes a singular verb (clubs was the evening's entertainment), and it pairs naturally with play and a round of.

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