: a short heavy club
The eighteenth-century audience went to the theatre armed with whistles, rattles, … and sometimes even wooden cudgels.—
Ronald Hayman
Ronald Hayman
cudgeled or cudgelled; cudgeling or cudgelling
ˈkəj-liŋ 
ˈkə-jə-
: to beat with or as if with a cudgel
Synonyms
Examples of cudgel in a Sentence
Noun
a farmer armed with a cudgel drove us off his land
Recent Examples on the WebDan Kaufman, The New Yorker, 9 May 2024
Taking sides now is a surefire way to inflame at least one faction in a conflict that has divided campuses, split the Democratic Party and handed Republican lawmakers a cudgel with which to attack the institutions.
—Maureen Farrell, New York Times, 3 May 2024
The official declined to be identified ahead of Biden’s remarks.
Republicans have tried to turn scenes of unrest into a campaign cudgel against Democrats.
—Chris Megerian, Fortune, 2 May 2024
An effort to introduce a 15-week federal ban in the Senate backfired on the party in the midterm elections, quickly becoming a cudgel for Democrats in key races.
—Shane Goldmacher, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024
Police abuses often fell under the cudgel of his prose.
—Thomas R Eddlem, Orange County Register, 5 Feb. 2024
Republican critics of President Joe Biden have sough to pin the blame for high prices on the president and use it as a cudgel to derail his re-election bid.
—Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 11 Apr. 2024
Clay had famously fought off six brothers who had attacked him with guns, daggers and cudgels at a political debate, killing one with a knife.
—Jon Grinspan, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Apr. 2024
Technically, the legislation that passed overwhelmingly in the House on Wednesday is a cudgel that seeks to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to a non-Chinese entity.
—Allison Morrow, CNN, 14 Mar. 2024
Timothy Ryback, TIME, 26 Apr. 2024
Before long, fairs had such attractions as cudgelling bouts, bearbaiting, and something called gouging.
—Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2023
Yet doing away with the government’s critic-cudgelling arsenal should be a much higher priority.
—The Economist, 20 July 2019
In the winter of 1775-76, Dunbar didn’t stand a chance against the 40 patriots in Farmington, Conn., who cudgeled him nearly to death near his home.
—Caitlin Fitz, WSJ, 11 July 2017
Noun
In the fifties and sixties, wages and benefits grew for union miners, but the fear that jobs could disappear at any moment was often employed as a cudgel by industry bosses.
—Dan Kaufman, The New Yorker, 9 May 2024
Taking sides now is a surefire way to inflame at least one faction in a conflict that has divided campuses, split the Democratic Party and handed Republican lawmakers a cudgel with which to attack the institutions.
—Maureen Farrell, New York Times, 3 May 2024
The official declined to be identified ahead of Biden’s remarks.
Republicans have tried to turn scenes of unrest into a campaign cudgel against Democrats.
—Chris Megerian, Fortune, 2 May 2024
An effort to introduce a 15-week federal ban in the Senate backfired on the party in the midterm elections, quickly becoming a cudgel for Democrats in key races.
—Shane Goldmacher, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024
Police abuses often fell under the cudgel of his prose.
—Thomas R Eddlem, Orange County Register, 5 Feb. 2024
Republican critics of President Joe Biden have sough to pin the blame for high prices on the president and use it as a cudgel to derail his re-election bid.
—Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 11 Apr. 2024
Clay had famously fought off six brothers who had attacked him with guns, daggers and cudgels at a political debate, killing one with a knife.
—Jon Grinspan, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Apr. 2024
Technically, the legislation that passed overwhelmingly in the House on Wednesday is a cudgel that seeks to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to a non-Chinese entity.
—Allison Morrow, CNN, 14 Mar. 2024
Verb
Hitler exploited his 37% to gridlock legislative processes, to cudgel or crush the political opposition, and ultimately to undermine the country’s democratic structures.
—Timothy Ryback, TIME, 26 Apr. 2024
Before long, fairs had such attractions as cudgelling bouts, bearbaiting, and something called gouging.
—Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 14 Aug. 2023
Yet doing away with the government’s critic-cudgelling arsenal should be a much higher priority.
—The Economist, 20 July 2019
In the winter of 1775-76, Dunbar didn’t stand a chance against the 40 patriots in Farmington, Conn., who cudgeled him nearly to death near his home.
—Caitlin Fitz, WSJ, 11 July 2017
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cudgel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Dictionary Entries Near cudgel
Cite this Entry
“Cudgel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cudgel. Accessed 15 May. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
cudgel
1 of 2 noun
cud·gel
ˈkəj-əl
: a short heavy club
cudgel
2 of 2 verb
cudgeled or cudgelled; cudgeling or cudgelling
-(ə-)liŋ
: to beat with or as if with a cudgel
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