cudgel

Etymology

From Middle English kuggel, from Old English cyċġel (“a large stick, cudgel”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuggil, from Proto-Germanic *kuggilaz (“knobbed instrument”), derivative of Proto-Germanic *kuggǭ (“cog, swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *gewgʰ- (“swelling, bow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bow, bend, arch, curve”), equivalent to cog + -el (diminutive suffix). Cognate with Middle Dutch coghele (“stick with a rounded end”).

noun

1. A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.
   The guard hefted his cudgel menacingly and looked at the inmates.
2. (figurative) Anything that can be used as a threat to force one's will on another.
   As above said, legibility depends also much on the design of the letter; and again I take up the cudgels against compressed type, and that especially in Roman letters: […] 1893, William Morris, The Ideal Book, published 1908
   Mrs. Clinton’s Senate tenure, however, also demonstrated the risks of overcompensation: Not wanting to give Republicans fodder to portray her as soft on defense, she authorized President Bush to use force in Iraq and handed Mr. Obama a political cudgel to use against her. 15 April 2015, Jonathan Martin, “For a Clinton, It’s Not Hard to Be Humble in an Effort to Regain Power”, in The New York Times
   [Minnesota Senator Steve] Daines isn’t the only example of right-wing politicians who wish to wield anti-Semitism as a convenient cudgel against their political enemies, with scant if any evidence. But Montana’s vanishingly small Jewish population makes it particularly clear that this strategy has little to do with flesh-and-blood Jews at all. 2019-7-17, Talia Lavin, “When Non-Jews Wield Anti-Semitism as Political Shield”, in GQ
   Mr. Cruz has been able to use his pseudo-intellectualism and his Ivy League pedigree as a cudgel. 2021-01-11, Mimi Swartz, “Never Forget What Ted Cruz Did”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

verb

1. To strike with a cudgel.
   The officer was violently cudgeled down in the midst of the rioters.
   Aboard the barge and so off the trail, the blessing lost its puissance and the barge-tender, who coveted Guyal's rich accoutrements, sought to cudgel him with a knoblolly. 1950, Jack Vance, “Mazirian the Magician”, in Dying Earth
2. To exercise (one's wits or brains).