cudgel

A growing number of self-described creatives wield legal protections, legitimate and non, as a cudgel against others.

From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2026

Another was to give investors such as government pension funds a cudgel to pressure companies into reducing CO2 emissions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

The administration again turned to trade as a tool to achieve various aims and as a cudgel.

From Barron's ● Mar. 4, 2026

But some experts say such fees cannot be used as a cudgel to punish players that break a contract and transfer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2025

The landlord made his appearance then, a cudgel in his hand.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

This scene emphasizes the film’s “savor every moment” theme that “We Live in Time” relentlessly cudgels viewers with for 108 endless minutes.

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2024

Knowledge advances through the clash of ideas; the contrarian is often the herald of a new insight; labels such as “settled” and “consensus” are the cudgels of fundamentalists.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2023

We all think differently now, so today there is no-one who will take up the cudgels for Matzneff.

From BBC ● Jan. 18, 2020

As Gabler reminded me, Winchell was an early and outspoken opponent of the Nazis and their American supporters and he considered ridicule one of his cudgels, most famously in his invented insult “Ratzis”.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2019

Before them stood two Brazen Beasts, armed with cudgels, spears, and short swords.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

The action may not be as important as the message — that people deserved to be treated with respect and dignity — but that message is cudgeled into viewers.

From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2020

It is only with some remove that this array gives up its scatter graph specificity and can be cudgeled into a best fit line.

From Slate ● May 4, 2016

Exposition abounds, events that should be summarized drag out in tiresome scenes, what should be insinuated is instead cudgeled home.

From Slate ● Nov. 8, 2013

Holbrooke, having more or less imprisoned the delegations on the U.S. airbase at Dayton, Ohio, cudgeled them into grudging submission.

From Newsweek ● Dec. 14, 2010

He cudgeled his brains, but thought of nothing that should give him uneasiness.

From Doubloons—and the Girl by John Maxwell Forbes

Dollars & Scents In Manhattan prominent artists cudgelled their imaginations for the perfect perfume bottle.

From Time Magazine Archive

She cudgelled her brains to devise some means of getting the better of her captives.

From The Mystery of the Green Ray by William Le Queux

His mother fled the house, and the rabble entered, and so cudgelled Pablo that he was fain to return to the inn; and, after being groomed, he allowed the archbishop to mount him.

From Tales from the Lands of Nuts and Grapes Spanish and Portuguese Folklore by Various

I became all at once very curious to know what the errand was which had pushed him so far from his home, and I cudgelled my brains to recollect his story.

From The Watchers A Novel by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason

He fought with Tim Tearcoat, and cudgelled with Ben, And wrestled with Sampson—all quarrelsome men;— I was sorry to see him thus wasting his force On fellows who kicked with the heels of a horse.

From The Poems of Philip Freneau, Volume I (of III) by Philip Freneau

With the return of the buyer's market, every U.S. manufacturer is cudgeling his brain?and the brains of designers?to make his product work better, feel better, look better and sell better than those of his rivals.

From Time Magazine Archive

Mr. Lippmann is mistaken when he uses the map as a means of cudgeling our academic system of education.

From Time Magazine Archive

With competition in the U.S. television industry growing hotter by the day, manufacturers were cudgeling their brains for new ways to trim costs and prices.

From Time Magazine Archive

That was followed by Black Snow, a cudgeling of Stanislavsky.

From Time Magazine Archive

The seven strolled away from camp and wandered about the grounds cudgeling their brains and calling themselves names for their stupidity.

From On Guard Mark Mallory's Celebration by Upton Sinclair

Stevens portrays Dickens at his desk, cudgelling his brains to find the name of the miser for his forthcoming tale.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 2, 2017

The contemporary guardians of culture have a habit of cudgelling anyone who might try to use culture for didactic ends or to open a subject up to a mass audience.

From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2011

Secretary Mellon wrote a "cudgelling," Are the "good times" so good?

From Time Magazine Archive

But as a matter of fact his eyes were resting upon Lieutenant Siddons, and he was cudgelling his brain in an effort to 26remember where he had seen him before.

From Aces Up by Covington Clarke

For a long while we were silent, each cudgelling his brains to think how we could find Monsieur Dauberny's trail.

From Fr?d?rique; vol. 2 by Charles Paul de Kock