▪ I. cudgel, n.
(ˈkʌdʒəl)
Forms: 1 cycgel, kycgel, kicgel, 3 kuggel, 6 cogell, coogell, quodgell, 6–7 cogil(l, cudgell, 7 coggell, cuggel, cudgil, 6— cudgel.
[OE. cycgel, kicgel, of which the OTeut. type would be *kuggilo-; but nothing is known of it in the cognate langs. Original y has become ŭ, as in blush, clutch, much.]
1. A short thick stick used as a weapon; a club.
| c 897 ælfred Gregory's Past. xl. 297 Ðæt hie mid ðæm kycglum [Cott. kyclum] hiera worda [verborum jacula] onᵹean hiera ierre worpiᵹen. a 899 ― tr. August. Soliloq. in Paul & Br. Beitr. IV. 110 [Ic] gaderode me þonne kigclas and stuþan sceaftas. a 1225 Ancr. R. 292 Mid te holie rode steaue, þet him is loðest kuggel, leie on þe deouel dogge. 1566 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 252 This deponent had a lytell cogell. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. ii. 87 Heauen guide him to thy husbands cudgell: and the diuell guide his cudgell afterwards. 1618 Rowlands Night-Raven (1620) 29 Tom with his cudgell, well bebasts his bones. 1662 J. Bargrave Pope Alex. VII (1867) 121 I saw..a coggell of wood hanging in a small rope. 1727 Swift Gulliver ii. vi. 146, I prepared two round sticks about the bigness of common cudgels. 1836 Marryat Japhet lxxix, Saluting him with several blows on his head with his cudgel. |
b. in pl. Short for: A contest with cudgels; = cudgel-play.
| 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 27 One of our lusty ploughmen..would at fisty-cuffes or cudgels soundly beclowt a Hollander. 1663 Flagellum; or O. Cromwell (ed. 2) 8 Players at Foot-ball, Cudgels, or any other boysterous sport. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 434 ¶2 They learned to Box and play at Cudgels. 1800 Windham Speeches Parl. (1812) I. 335 If a set of poor men..prefer a game of cudgels. 1819 Reading Mercury 24 May, A good hat to be played for at cudgels. |
2. fig., esp. in phr. to take up the cudgels: to engage in a vigorous contest or debate (for, in defence of, on behalf of). So † to give up or cross the cudgels: ‘to forbear the contest, from the practice of cudgel-players to lay one over the other’ (J.).
| 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 233 [Writers] taking up the Cudgels on one side or other. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 309 Mr. Chillingworth..took up the cudgels against him. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. ii. 40 Which forc'd the stubborn'st for the Cause To cross the cudgels to the laws. 1691 tr. Emilianne's Frauds Romish Monks 414 Tho' I did not immediately give up the Cudgels. a 1704 L'Estrange (J.), To contend..and then either to cross the cudgels, or to be baffled in the conclusion. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. v, He had..wielded for years the cudgels of controversy. 1869 Trollope He Knew i. (1878) 5 His wife had taken up the cudgels for her friend. |
3. Comb., as cudgel-cracking, cudgel-proof adj. See also cudgel-play, -player, -playing.
| 1620 Swetnam Arraign'd (1880) 10 A Master..of the magnanimous Method of Cudgell-cracking. 1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 306 His Doublet was of sturdy Buff, And though not Sword, yet Cudgel-proof. 1774 Joel Collier Mus. Trav. (1775) 75 A skin which must be cudgel-proof. |
▪ II. cudgel, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To beat or thrash with a cudgel.
| 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. iii. 159 He call'd you Iacke, and said hee would cudgell you. 1679 Wood Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) II. 473 John Dryeden the poet..was about 8 at night soundly cudgell'd by 3 men. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 221 Sometimes he was knocked down: sometimes he was cudgelled. |
b. fig.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. i. 63 Cudgell thy brains no more about it. 1679–1714 Burnet Hist. Ref., To terrify the court of Rome, and cudgel the Pope into a compliance with what he desired. 1849 Thackeray Pendennis xv, When a gentleman is cudgelling his brain to find any rhyme for sorrow besides borrow and to-morrow. 1857 De Quincey China Wks. 1871 XVI. 254 Luckily we have..cudgelled them out of this hellish doctrine. |
2. intr. To play cudgels for: see cudgel n. 1 b.
| 1840 Thackeray Catherine xii, Monsieur Figue gives a hat to be cudgelled for. |