cudgel

Meaning

Noun

1. A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.
2. (figuratively) Anything that can be used as a threat to force one's will on another.

Verb

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

Synonyms

club

bludgeon

stick

staff

truncheon

baton

bat

🦇

beat

cane

rod

mallet

strike

shillelagh

thrash

billy

mace

belabour

bang

pole

fustigate

big stick

long stick

war club

assault

crowbar

thick stick

attack

👊

shillalah

maul

batter

whack

slat

smite

swat

walking stick

billystick

short sword

knobstick

lathi

beat hard

cudgel-play

baton, cane

beam

beetle

🪲

billy club

blackjack

bounder

buffet

bump

cad

Translations

randello

Knüppel

gourdin

knuppel

trique

bastão

ρόπαλο

mazza

Keule

bastone

bâtonner

bâton

prügeln

Prügel

massue

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈkʌd͡ʒəl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: kuggel

Inherited from Old English: cyċġel

Cognate with Middle Dutch: coghele

In summary

From Middle English kuggel, from Old English cyċġel (“a large stick, cudgel”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuggil, from Proto-Germanic *kuggilaz (“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 (“stick with a rounded end”).