membership

noun

1. 1

   The state of being a member of a group or organization.

   The terms of membership agreement were vague.

   He has memberships in clubs in three cities.

   Hence there resulted a division of the membership of the brotherhood into two classes, the practical and theoretic, or, as they are more commonly called, the operative and speculative, or “domatic” and “geomatic."

2. 2

   The body of members of an organization.

   The memberships of the state chapters elect delegates to the national convention.

3. 3

   The fact of being a member of a set.

verb

1. 1

   To classify (someone) as belonging to a certain group or community.

   Whatever the topic of the conversation the speaker must ‘membership’ his listener, put him into one of two or more mutually exclusive boxes. Each time a topic changes the listener must be re-membershipped, and during a conversation the same person may be membershipped as a doctor, a rugby player, a liberal, a gardener, a bridge player.

Forms

plural

memberships

past tense

membershipped

past participle

membershipped

present participle

membershipping

third person singular

memberships