The Knickerbocker Club (known informally as The Knick) is a gentlemen's club in New York City that was founded in 1871. It is considered to be the most exclusive club in the United States and one of the most aristocratic gentlemen's clubs in the world. The term "Knickerbocker", partly due to writer Washington Irving's use of the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker, was a byword for a New York patrician, comparable to a "Boston Brahmin".