cudgel

/ˈkʌdʒəl/

Other forms: cudgels; cudgelled; cudgelling; cudgeled; cudgeling

A cudgel is a thick club or stick, used to attack or defend against an attacker. A rioting mob might be armed with cudgels.

A cudgel is a rough kind of weapon — the club a police officer carries, for example, is more likely to be called a baton or a truncheon. An angry protester might wield a cudgel, or a burglar might carry one along during a robbery. The Old English root of cudgel is cycgel, "club with a rounded head," possibly from the Proto-Indo-European geu, "to curve or to bend."

Definitions of cudgel

1. noun

   a club that is used as a weapon
   types:

   bastinado

   a cudgel used to give someone a beating on the soles of the feet

   shillalah, shillelagh

   a cudgel made of hardwood (usually oak or blackthorn)

   type of:

   club

   stout stick that is larger at one end
2. verb

   strike with a cudgel
   synonyms: fustigate

   type of:

   hit

   deal a blow to, either with the hand or with an instrument