cudgel

Meaning

Noun

1. A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.
2. 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).

Concepts

cudgel

club

stick

bludgeon

staff

truncheon

bat

baton

cane

beat

mallet

rod

thrash

billy

shillelagh

strike

mace

pole

fustigate

bang

belabour

attack

assault

thick stick

batter

shillalah

whack

maul

war club

crowbar

long stick

big stick

drub

flog

flagellate

lathi

pound

blackjack

short sword

cudgel-play

knobstick

beat hard

buffet

bump

clack

clobber

clout

hit

impinge

knock

larrup

rap

shroud

slat

smite

swat

beam

beetle

clod

gavel

idiot

moron

poop

sap

pummel

knout

billy club

billystick

nightstick

baton, cane

bounder

cad

walking stick

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈkʌd͡ʒəl/

Etymology

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”).