Adjacent Words

Cudgel definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CUDGEL, n. A short thick stick of wood, such as may be used by the hand in beating. It differs strictly from a club, which is larger at one end than the other. It is shorter than a pole, and thicker than a rod.
To cross the cudgels, to forbear the contest; a phrase borrowed from the practice of cudgel-players, who lay one cudgel over another.
CUDGEL, v.t.
1. To beat with a cudgel, or thick stick.
2. To beat in general.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a club that is used as a weapon v
1: strike with a cudgel [syn: cudgel, fustigate]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English kuggel, from Old English cycgel; perhaps akin to Middle High German kugele ball Date: before 12th century a short heavy club II. transitive verb (-geled or -gelled; -geling or cudgelling) Date: 1596 to beat with or as if with a cudgel

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. a short thick stick used as a weapon. --v.tr. (cudgelled, cudgelling; US cudgeled, cudgeling) beat with a cudgel. Phrases and idioms: cudgel one's brains think hard about a problem. take up the cudgels (often foll. by for) make a vigorous defence. Etymology: OE cycgel, of unkn. orig.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cudgel Cudg"el, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cudgeled or Cudgelled (-?ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Cudgeling or cudgelling.] To beat with a cudgel. An he here, I would cudgel him like a dog. --Shak. To cudgel one's brains, to exercise one's wits.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cudgel Cudg"el (k?j"?l), n. [OE. kuggel; cf. G. keule club (with a round end), kugel ball, or perh. W. cogyl cudgel, or D. cudse, kuds, cudgel.] A staff used in cudgel play, shorter than the quarterstaff, and wielded with one hand; hence, any heavy stick used as a weapon. He getteth him a grievous crabtree cudgel and . . . falls to rating of them as if they were dogs. --Bunyan. Cudgel play, a fight or sportive contest with cudgels. To cross the cudgels, to forbear or give up the contest; -- a phrase borrowed from the practice of cudgel players, who lay one cudgel over another when the contest is ended. To take up cudgels for, to engage in a contest in behalf of (some one or something).

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(cudgels) 1. A cudgel is a thick, short stick that is used as a weapon. N-COUNT 2. If you take up the cudgels for someone or something, you speak or fight in support of them. The trade unions took up the cudgels for the 367 staff made redundant. PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR for/against n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Club, bludgeon. II. v. a. Cane, drub, thrash, baste, beat with a cudgel. See beat.

Moby Thesaurus

baste, bastinado, bat, baton, beat, belabor, belt, billy, billy club, birch, blackjack, bludgeon, buffet, cane, club, clue, cosh, cowhide, cue, cut, drub, ferule, flagellate, flail, flog, fustigate, give a whipping, give the stick, hickory, horsewhip, indication, inkling, intimation, knobkerrie, knout, lace, lash, lay on, mace, nightstick, notion, paddle, pistol-whip, pommel, pummel, quarterstaff, rattan, rawhide, rod, sandbag, scourge, shillelagh, smite, spank, spontoon, strap, stripe, suggestion, swinge, switch, telltale, thrash, thump, trounce, truncheon, wallop, war club, whale, whip, whop, wind