vbl. sb. [-ING1.] The action of the verb CUDGEL: a. Beating with a cudgel; b. Cudgel-playing.

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1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. iii. 249. Proud of an heroicall cudgelling.

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1663.  Cowley, Cutter of Coleman St., V. xiii. There should ha’ been a Beating, a lusty Cudgeling.

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1787.  Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 10 Feb. For what were you mest famous at School?… Cudgelling, sir.

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1827.  De Quincey, Murder, Wks. IV. 21. A man deserved a cudgelling for writing ‘Leviathan.’

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a. 1839.  Praed, Poems (1864), II. 50. Fearless he risks that cranium thick At cudgelling and singlestick.

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