cudgel

/ˈkʌd͡ʒəl/

Etymology

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

cudgel means A locality in the Leeton council area, southern New South Wales, Australia. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.

name

A locality in the Leeton council area, southern New South Wales, Australia.

noun

A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.“The guard hefted his cudgel menacingly and looked at the inmates.”
Anything that can be used as a threat to force one's will on another.“As above said, legibility depends also much on the design of the letter; and again I take up the cudgels against compressed type, and that especially in Roman letters: […]”

verb

To strike with a cudgel.“The officer was violently cudgeled down in the midst of the rioters.”
To exercise (one's wits or brains) in an effort to force a memory or solution; to rack (one's mind).““Most remarkable,” murmured Tarzan, cudgeling his brain for some pretext upon which to turn the subject.”