gentlemen's club
8
6.8
- noun
- /ˈdʒɛntəlmənz klʌb/
:
club de caballeros
- Like their eastern predecessors, these Midwestern societies began as "gentlemen's clubs," and long remained that way.
- called a gentlemen's club
Examples
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After hours, he hangs out at a gentlemen's club known as La Gatita Amable.
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The restaurant has what I imagine to be the ambiance of an American gentleman's club of the 1940s.
Academic text (2010) -
Welcome to the gentlemen's club.
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This is a gentleman's club.
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Was that another entrance to the gentleman's club?
Academic text (2010) -
It's like a gentlemen's club for illusionists.
Fiction book (1995) -
The Scores gentlemen's club was destroyed in the explosion.
Blog text (3) -
Why would an archbishop insist that someone like Savile be made a member of an exclusive Pall Mall gentleman's club?
Blog text (23) -
The Detroit Club over at Cass and Fort—those old-style gentlemen's clubs.
Blog text (11) -
The House of Lords is often called the best gentlemen's club in London.
Synonyms
126
4.9
A social group for men at college who live and do activities together
47
8.2
An informal group of male university students who join together for parties and other activities
15
3.1
A group where people meet to enjoy events and make friends
How Exclusive
Surface Forms
Morphology
gentlemen's + club
The meaning is transparently compositional: 'gentlemen's' (belonging to gentlemen/men) combined with 'club' (an association) yields a club for men. A B1 learner who knows both words can infer the core sense (a male social association), though finer cultural connotations like prestige or exclusivity are additional pragmatic details.
Etymology
Gentlemen's club began long ago when rich men met in private rooms to read, eat, and play cards. Because these places were for gentlemen only and like a private club, the phrase came to mean 'a private social club for men'.