Definition of "cudgel" [cudg•el]

• A short heavy stick; a club. (noun)
• To beat or strike with or as if with a cudgel. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""Hill-bastards!" he howled at them, beating at them as if they were sheaves and his cudgel were a flail."
• "The fencer who demanded a contest according to the rules of fencing was the French army; his opponent who threw away the rapier and snatched up the cudgel was the Russian people; those who try to explain the matter according to the rules of fencing are the historians who have described the event."
• "The cudgel is a stout one, and som'at like your master's justice; -- 'tis a good weapon in weak hands; and that's the way many a rogue escapes a dressing."