| 释义 |
▪ I. cudgel, n.|ˈkʌdʒəl|
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.
c897ælfred Gregory's Past. xl. 297 Ðæt hie mid ðæm kycglum [Cott. kyclum] hiera worda [verborum jacula] onᵹean hiera ierre worpiᵹen. a899― tr. August. Soliloq. in Paul & Br. Beitr. IV. 110 [Ic] gaderode me þonne kigclas and stuþan sceaftas. a1225Ancr. R. 292 Mid te holie rode steaue, þet him is loðest kuggel, leie on þe deouel dogge. 1566in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxford 252 This deponent had a lytell cogell. 1598Shakes. Merry W. iv. ii. 87 Heauen guide him to thy husbands cudgell: and the diuell guide his cudgell afterwards. 1618Rowlands Night-Raven (1620) 29 Tom with his cudgell, well bebasts his bones. 1662J. Bargrave Pope Alex. VII (1867) 121 I saw..a coggell of wood hanging in a small rope. 1727Swift Gulliver ii. vi. 146, I prepared two round sticks about the bigness of common cudgels. 1836Marryat Japhet lxxix, Saluting him with several blows on his head with his cudgel.
b. in pl. Short for: A contest with cudgels; = cudgel-play.
1630R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 27 One of our lusty ploughmen..would at fisty-cuffes or cudgels soundly beclowt a Hollander. 1663Flagellum; or O. Cromwell (ed. 2) 8 Players at Foot-ball, Cudgels, or any other boysterous sport. 1712Addison Spect. No. 434 ⁋2 They learned to Box and play at Cudgels. 1800Windham Speeches Parl. (1812) I. 335 If a set of poor men..prefer a game of cudgels. 1819Reading 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.).
1654Whitlock Zootomia 233 [Writers] taking up the Cudgels on one side or other. a1661Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 309 Mr. Chillingworth..took up the cudgels against him. 1678Butler Hud. iii. ii. 40 Which forc'd the stubborn'st for the Cause To cross the cudgels to the laws. 1691tr. Emilianne's Frauds Romish Monks 414 Tho' I did not immediately give up the Cudgels. a1704L'Estrange (J.), To contend..and then either to cross the cudgels, or to be baffled in the conclusion. 1851Thackeray Eng. Hum. v, He had..wielded for years the cudgels of controversy. 1869Trollope He Knew i. (1878) 5 His wife had taken up the cudgels for her friend.
3. Comb., as cudgel-cracking, cudgel-proof adj. See also cudgel-play, -player, -playing.
1620Swetnam Arraign'd (1880) 10 A Master..of the magnanimous Method of Cudgell-cracking. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 306 His Doublet was of sturdy Buff, And though not Sword, yet Cudgel-proof. 1774Joel Collier Mus. Trav. (1775) 75 A skin which must be cudgel-proof.
▪ II. cudgel, v.
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To beat or thrash with a cudgel.
1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. iii. 159 He call'd you Iacke, and said hee would cudgell you. 1679Wood Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) II. 473 John Dryeden the poet..was about 8 at night soundly cudgell'd by 3 men. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 221 Sometimes he was knocked down: sometimes he was cudgelled.
b. fig.
1602Shakes. Ham. v. i. 63 Cudgell thy brains no more about it. 1679–1714Burnet Hist. Ref., To terrify the court of Rome, and cudgel the Pope into a compliance with what he desired. 1849Thackeray Pendennis xv, When a gentleman is cudgelling his brain to find any rhyme for sorrow besides borrow and to-morrow. 1857De Quincey China Wks. 1871 XVI. 254 Luckily we have..cudgelled them out of this hellish doctrine.
2. intr. To play cudgels for: see cudgel n. 1 b.
1840Thackeray Catherine xii, Monsieur Figue gives a hat to be cudgelled for. |