bludgeon

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“
Printed letters fail to register the amazement in Professor Lord's tone Why not, when you consider her specialty What specialty Really, a slender sword was of no use with this man; a bludgeon was the only instrument, yet it might wound, and she only wanted to prick.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A short heavy club, usually of wood, that is thicker or loaded at one end.
  2. transitive verb To hit with or as if with a heavy club.
  3. transitive verb To overcome by or as if by using a heavy club. See Synonyms at intimidate.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • An extremely keen ear might still have heard the running of the man with the hawser bludgeon--had there been no rain The man with the hawser bludgeon had suddenly acquired a great dislike for the wet night. —  030 - Spook Hole
  • “Looks like this was used as a bludgeon,” Conklin said Chapter 106 WE WERE IN INTERVIEW ROOM NUMBER TWO, the smaller of the interrogation rooms at the squad. —  The 6th Target by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
  • He and Bush wielded the national-security issue like a bludgeon, casting Democrats who bucked the president's tactics as soft on terror.
  • Using their intellect as a bludgeon, these tyrants terrorize underlings and other mere mortals. —  Psychology Today
  • Rorschach will even hold onto these weapons, and his brutal finishers get even nastier when there is a crowbar involved, though watching him wield a knife like a bludgeon is a bit silly. —  GameSpot's News, Screenshots, Movies, Reviews, Previews, Downloads, and Features
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

bludgeon:   bludgeoned
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Not found before 1730 (Bailey); origin unknown. A plausible conjecture connects it with D. bludsen, blutsen, bruise, beat (parallel with butsen with same meaning: see botch). The English word, if from this source, may have been introduced as a cant term in the Elizabethan period, along with many other cant terms from the D. which never, or not until much later, emerged in literary use.
 

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/ˈblədʒən/
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