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cudgel

cudgel is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 2 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.A staff used in cudgel play, shorter than the quarterstaff, and wielded with one hand; hence, any heavy stick used as a weapon. He getteth him a grievous crabtree cudgel and . . . falls to rating of them as if they were dogs. Bunyan. 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).
  2. 2.To beat with a cudgel. An he here, I would cudgel him like a dog. Shak. To cudgel one's brains, to exercise one's wits.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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