cudgel

English

Etymology

From Middle English (Southwestern dialect) kuggel, from Old English cycgel, from Proto-Germanic *kugulaz 'ball' (compare West Frisian kûgel, Dutch kogel (“bullet, ball”), German Kugel), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *kuʒʒō. More at cog.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʌdʒəl

Noun

cudgel (plural cudgels)

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

   The guard hefted his cudgel menacingly at the inmates, the threat to swing glinted in his eye.

   • 1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V

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

Synonyms

• club

Translations

a short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon

Bulgarian: сопа (bg) f. Dutch: knuppel (nl) m. Finnish: nuija (fi), ryhmysauva (fi) Greek: ρόπαλο (el) (rópalo) n. Hungarian: fütykös (hu), husáng (hu), furkósbot (hu), bunkósbot (hu) Korean: 쇠몽둥이 (soe-mongdungI), 철퇴 (鐵槌, cheoltoe)

Old Norse: klubba c. Russian: дубинка (ru) f. Serbo-Croatian: batina (sh), toljaga (sh), močuga (sh), buzdovan (sh) Swedish: klubba c., påk c.

Verb

cudgel (third-person singular simple present cudgels, present participle cudgeling or (UK) cudgelling, simple past and past participle cudgeled or (UK) cudgelled)

1. to strike someone with a cudgel

   The officer was violently cudgeled down in the midst of the rioters, with his own beatstick no less.

Anagrams

• cludge