cudgel
Plural: cudgels
Noun
- a club that is used as a weapon
- A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.
- Anything that can be used as a threat to force one's will on another.
Verb
Verb Forms: cudgelled, cudgeling, cudgels, cudgelling
- To beat someone or something with a short, thick stick.
- strike with a cudgel
- To strike with a cudgel.
- To exercise (one's wits or brains) in an effort to force a memory or solution; to rack (one's mind).
Examples
- He tried to CUDGEL his brain for a word, but his mind remained stubbornly blank.
- The guard hefted his cudgel menacingly and looked at the inmates.
- The officer was violently cudgeled down in the midst of the rioters.
Origin / 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”).
Synonyms
Scrabble Score: 10
cudgel: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordcudgel: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
cudgel: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary