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. K. Ælfred, Gregory’s Past., xl. 297. Ðæt hie mid ðæm kycglum [Cott. kyclum] hiera worda [verborum jacula] onʓean hiera ierre worpiʓen. Ibid., trans. August. Soliloq. (Shrine 163; 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. Shaks., 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;… these coggells of wood directed them to the veins of gold and silver.
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. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 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. trans. Emilianne’s Frauds Romish Monks, 414. Tho’ I did not immediately give up the Cudgels.
1692. R. L’Estrange, Fables, 265 (J.). To Contend at first, and then, either to Cross the Cudgells, 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, etc. i. (1878), 5. His wife had taken up the cudgels for her friend.
3. Comb., as cudgel-cracking, -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.
