[f. CLUB sb. (in branch I). The order of the senses from 3 onward is not satisfactorily traced: after the formation of the sb. in branch III, the vb. and sb. appear to have reacted upon each other so as to produce a network of uses, the mutual relations of which cannot be shown in any lineal order.]
1. trans. To beat with a club or as with a club; to knock down or kill with a club.
1593. [see CLUBBING vbl. sb.].
1641. Burroughs, Moses his Choice (1650), 717. In the Original it is, I beat my body black and blew, I club it down.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, Sat. IX. 170. He’l … Clubb my brains out.
1699. Sir T. Morgan’s Progr. France & Flanders, in Somers, Tracts (1751), III. 158. The strongest Soldiers and Officers clubbing them down.
1724. De Foe, Mem. Cavalier (1840), 205. [They] fell to battering us with the stocks of their musquets…. We at first despised this way of clubbing us.
1753. W. Douglass, Brit. Settlem. N. Amer., 280. People forceably turned them out of Possession of their Lands: this they call clubing them out.
1886. Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll (ed. 2), iv. 37. Mr. Hyde broke out of all bounds and clubbed him to the earth.
1887. Spectator, 4 June, 760/1. The rioters clubbed the horses on the face.
2. To club a musket: to use the butt-end of it as a club. (Cf. Club-musket in CLUB sb. 20.)
1808. J. Barlow, Colomb., VII. 358. Reseize the musket bare, Club the broad breach, and headlong whirl to war.
1843. Lever, J. Hinton, vi. (1878), 36. Muskets were clubbed or bayonets fixed.
1876. Green, Short Hist., viii. 540. The Royalist foot, after a single discharge, clubbed their muskets and fell on the centre under Fairfax.
3. To gather or form into a club-like mass; spec. to dress the hair into a club (cf. CLUB sb. 6).
1625. [see CLUBBED 4].
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), V. 1798. The females … tie a lock of it on the crown, while a few, after our custom, club it behind.
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 20. They … wore their hair clubbed, atop, Chinese fashion.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., X. XXI. iv. 28. He wears his hair … clubbed, and dressed with a high toupee.
4. To collect, gather together, or combine into one mass or body, to mass.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. Introd. Fain to club quotations with Men whose learning and belief lies in marginal stuffings.
1828. E. Irving, Last Days, 137. The unholy church, which clubbeth certain into a religious world, and treateth the rest as if they were under the sentence of excommunication.
1883. Manch. Exam., 24 Oct., 5/1. Clubbing together the contingents of these six counties.
1884. J. Payn, Thicker than Water, xvi. 125. London which is equal to half a dozen great towns clubbed together.
5. intr. To form themselves into a club or mass.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., xli. The high renowne Of Citty’s valours Clubb’d into his Den.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 87. Two such worlds must club together and become one.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 97. They could sensibly perceive them [i.e., the oblong particles] to gather together, and club to make greater bodies.
1862. Johns, Brit. Birds, 350. At this season the old Black Cocks club together.
b. Of shot fired from a gun: To keep together in a mass or cluster instead of scattering. (Said also of the gun.)
1830. Mech. Mag., XIII. 420. Clubbing or balling is supposed by many to occur only with cartridges … all guns are liable to club or cluster (which … is similar to firing several bullets or slugs).
6. trans. To conjoin, combine, or put together into a common stock, or to a common end.
1656. S. Holland, Zara (1719), 96. They saw the Fish-finders corroborated in one lump, clubbing all their nets and strength to boot.
1656. Beale, Chess, 1. Some of the most learned and experienced besiegers, meeting and clubbing their inventions together.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1709), 81. How they should club their particular Informations into a common Idea, is inconceivable.
1700. W. King, Transactioneer, 34. We club Notions, laying them up in a kind of Joynt-Stock.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, iv. (1858), 292. They clubbed their small means together.
7. intr. To combine together (or with others) in joint action; to combine as partners or as members of a CLUB (sense 12).
1651. Charleton, Ephes. & Cimm. Matrons (1668), 60. Convinced of her impotency to club with him in the Act of procreation.
1652. Brome, Joviall Crew, Ded. Fortune and Nature scarce ever club’d so well.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 44. Those two that clubb’d with Mahomet in making the Alchoran.
1704. W. King, Mully of Mountown. Oh! may thy codlins ever swim in Cream!… Thy White wine, Sugar, Milk, together club, To make that gentle viand Syllabub.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., II. vi. 62. (Subtle Rebekkah) that club’d with her beloved Son Jacob, to Cheat … his own Father and Brother.
1767. Franklin, Lett. (1833), 104. Perhaps as in some other cases, different causes may club in producing the effect.
1829. Blackw. Mag., XXVI. 914. They were endeavouring, by clubbing and caballing, to make themselves perpetual petty despots.
8. To combine in making up a sum (as the cost or expense of an entertainment, etc.) by a number of individual contributions; to go shares in the cost of anything. Const. with others, for an object.
1655. R. Younge, Agst. Drunkards, 18. Who constantly clubs it, first for his mornings draught, secondly at Exchange time, thirdly at night when shops are shut in.
1662. Pepys, Diary, 24 Nov. How he did endeavour to find out a ninepence to club with me for the coach.
1677. Yarranton, Engl. Improv., 99. As I have club’d with you for Supper, so I pray let me club a little with you in Discourse.
1709. Tatler, No. 137, ¶ 3. We resolved to club for a Coach.
a. 1734. North, Lives, II. 175. These Six-clerks clubbed and made a present to his lordship of £1000.
1883. A. Dobson, Old-World Idylls, 20. Timorous cits on their pilgrimage Would ‘club’ for a ‘Guard’ to ride the stage.
b. To club together.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxvi. 87. Several of us clubbed together and bought a large piece of twilled cotton.
1860. Adler, Fauriel’s Prov. Poetry, v. 75. Other cities … clubbed together to support a professor in common.
1889. A. R. Hope, in Boy’s Own Paper, 10 Aug., 714/1. We … clubbed together to purchase an American clock, which set us a deplorable example of punctuality.
9. trans. To contribute (as one’s share) towards a common stock. Also absol.
1632. Sherwood, To clubbe, mettre ou despendre à l’egual d’un autre.
1670. Lassels, Voy. Italy, I. Pref. Though yong men be not able to … clubb wit equally with these men.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1714), 296. Indeed every Part of the Body seems to club and contribute to the Seed.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xx. (1737), 87. Let every Man club his Penny towards it.
1743. R. Blair, Grave, 29.
| And yet ne’er Yonker on the Green laughs louder, | |
| Or clubs a Smuttier Tale. |
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xxiii. This scheme towards the execution of which my companion clubbed her wardrobe.
1831. A. Fonblanque, Eng. under 7 Administr. (1837), II. 173. At the public-house he would club his mite with others for a tune.
10. To make up, put together (a sum) by joint contributions.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Poems, Author’s Apol. How Virgil, Horace, Ovid join, And club together half a line.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & B., I. ix. 143. They … clubbed up a comfortable maintenance for the prebendary’s widow.
1863. Fawcett, Pol. Econ., II. x. (1876), 257. Twenty-eight of these poor weavers accordingly agreed to club together a small sum in order to purchase some tea and sugar from a wholesale shop.
b. To defray by a proportional charge upon each individual liable; as ‘to club the expense.’
11. Mil. (trans.) To throw (a body of soldiers) into a confused and disorganized mass. Also as a fig. expression to club the battalion: see quots.
1806. Windham, Speeches Parl., 3 April (1812), II. 334. There is an expression known in the army, applicable to what happens sometimes under an unlucky field-officer, and is called ‘clubbing the battalion.’ Ibid., 335. The Honourable Gentlemen … have completely ‘clubbed the battalion.’
1847. Thackeray, Burlesques, Phil. Fogarty, II. In one instant thirty thousand men were in inextricable confusion. ‘Clubbed, by Jabers!’ roared out Lanty Clancy.
1868. Kinglake, Crimea (1877), III. i. 116. The force, though clubbed and broken into clusters of men.
12. Naut. To drift down a current with an anchor out.
1850. in Weale, Dict. Terms; and mod. Dicts.
