cudgel

name

1. A locality in the Leeton council area, southern New South Wales, Australia.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English kuggel, from Old English cyċġel (“a large stick, cudgel”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuggil, from Proto-Germanic *kuggilaz (“a knobbed instrument”), derivative of Proto-Germanic *kuggǭ (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewgʰ- (“swelling, bow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”), equivalent to cog + -el (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch coghele (“a stick with a rounded end”).

1. A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.

   “The guard hefted his cudgel menacingly and looked at the inmates.”

   “Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that every day they gained in skill and strength.”

2. Anything that can be used as a threat to force one's will on another.

   “As above said, legibility depends also much on the design of the letter; and again I take up the cudgels against compressed type, and that especially in Roman letters: […]”

   “Mrs. Clinton’s Senate tenure, however, also demonstrated the risks of overcompensation: Not wanting to give Republicans fodder to portray her as soft on defense, she authorized President Bush to use force in Iraq and handed Mr. Obama a political cudgel to use against her.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English kuggel, from Old English cyċġel (“a large stick, cudgel”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuggil, from Proto-Germanic *kuggilaz (“a knobbed instrument”), derivative of Proto-Germanic *kuggǭ (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewgʰ- (“swelling, bow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”), equivalent to cog + -el (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch coghele (“a stick with a rounded end”).

1. To strike with a cudgel.

   “The officer was violently cudgeled down in the midst of the rioters.”

   “I would cudgel him like a dog if he would say so.”

2. To exercise (one's wits or brains) in an effort to force a memory or solution; to rack (one's mind).

   ““Most remarkable,” murmured Tarzan, cudgeling his brain for some pretext upon which to turn the subject.”