cudgel

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

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.
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         He getteth him a grievous crabtree cudgel and . . .
         falls to rating of them as if they were dogs. --Bunyan.
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   {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).
      [1913 Webster]
    

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