: a short heavy club
… grasped more firmly a stout oaken cudgel …—
Jane G. Austin
cudgeled or cudgelled; cudgeling or cudgelling
ˈkəj-liŋ,
ˈkə-jə-
: to beat with or as if with a cudgel
see also cudgel one's brains
Examples of cudgel in a Sentence
Noun
a farmer armed with a cudgel drove us off his land
Recent Examples on the Web
Meg Wingerter, Denver Post, 6 Jan. 2026
The actions also follow the emphasis the administration places on economic pressure and wins as a deterrent to war and a cudgel for peace.
—Shelley Inglis, The Conversation, 6 Jan. 2026
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
See All Example Sentences for cudgel
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Noun
The federal government has used Medicare funding as a cudgel to get hospitals to follow its priorities before, including as a way to force desegregation of wards in the program's early years.
—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.
—Cite this Entry
“Cudgel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cudgel. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
Kids 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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