bludgeon

Etymology

First attested in 1730. Origin uncertain, perhaps of Cornish origin (recorded as blogon c. 1450) or from Middle French bougeon, a diminutive of bouge (“club, stick”).

noun

1. A short, heavy club, often of wood, which is thicker or loaded at one end.
   We smashed the radio with a steel bludgeon.

verb

1. (transitive) To strike or hit with something hard, usually on the head; to club.
   The apprehended rioter was bludgeoned to death.
   Thomas Briggs, a senior bank clerk in the City, lived in Hackney, and on 9 July 1864 he was returning there by train from Fenchurch Street after a Saturday spent at work when he was bludgeoned to death in a first-class carriage, probably by a young German tailor named Franz Müller. (Let's hope it was Müller, because he was hanged for it.) And so Briggs was an all-round pioneer: an early commuter and the very first victim of a railway murder. 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, pages 16–17
2. (transitive) To coerce someone, as if with a bludgeon.
   Their favorite method was bludgeoning us with the same old arguments in favor of their opinions.
   Gianna Parasini: You've never worked in the corporate world, have you, Commander? You can't bludgeon through bureaucracy. Shepard: I can bludgeon pretty hard. 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria