clubbable

English

Etymology

From club +‎ -able.

Adjective

clubbable (comparative more clubbable, superlative most clubbable)

1. (British) Sociable.

   Antonym: unclubbable

   • 1886, Punch‎^[1], volume 91, page 249:

     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.

   • 2012, J. Clark, H. Erskine-Hill, The Interpretation of Samuel Johnson, Springer, →ISBN:

     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.

   • 2017, Jenny Landreth, Swell: A Waterbiography, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 84:

     It's usually only men who are described as ‘clubbable’, and before I knew what that actually meant I agreed with it.

   • 2019, Clark McGinn, The Burns Supper: A Comprehensive History, Luath Press Ltd, →ISBN, page 1480:

     In Burns's time, there were some well-known ‘clubbable men’: Smellie, Erskine and Parker were all boon companions.

Derived terms

• clubbableness

 

Further reading

• “clubbable”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.