Dictionary

clubbable en · ADJ

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *klumpô Old Norse klubbabor. Middle English clubbe English club Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Italic *-ðlom Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin -ābilis Old French -ablebor. Middle English -able English -able English clubbable From club + -able.

Meanings

1. (UK) Sociable.
   • Those who have never opened Hawkins’ Life know Johnson was a ‘clubbable’ man and that Hawkins was an ‘unclubbable’ man: such is the influence of Boswell's Life– and its editors. 2012, J. Clark, H. Erskine-Hill, The Interpretation of Samuel Johnson, Springer, →ISBN:
   • It's usually only men who are described as ‘clubbable’, and before I knew what that actually meant I agreed with it. 2017, Jenny Landreth, Swell: A Waterbiography, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 84:
   • In Burns's time, there were some well-known ‘clubbable men’: Smellie, Erskine and Parker were all boon companions. 2019, Clark McGinn, The Burns Supper: A Comprehensive History, Luath Press Ltd, →ISBN, page 1480:
   • Bond ordered an Americano and examined the sprinkling of over-dressed customers, mostly from Paris he guessed, who sat talking with focus and vivacity, creating that theatrically clubbable atmosphere of l'heure de l'apéritif. 1953, Ian Fleming, “The Girl From Headquarters”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 37:
   • Would not Jack Johnson be cut nowadays by even the rowdiest of Stock Exchange young men, and be voted a cad by every clubbable man above the class of ’ARRY? For in this quality of “clubbable,” and the value now put upon it, lies the whole secret of change in our fast men, mashers, and men about town. 1886, Punch, volume 91, page 249:

Forms

Antonyms

unclubbable

Deriveds

clubbableness