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  1. truncheon love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A short stick carried by police; a billy club.
  2. n. A staff carried as a symbol of office or authority; a baton.
  3. n. Obsolete A heavy club; a cudgel.
  4. n. Obsolete A thick cutting from a plant, as for grafting.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A trunk, stock, or stump, as of a tree; hence, a tree the branches of which have been lopped off to produce rapid growth.
  2. n. The shaft of a spear or lance.
  3. n. A short staff; a club; a cudgel.
  4. n. A baton or staff of authority; specifically, in heraldry, the staff of the earl marshal of England. Two of these truncheons are borne saltierwise behind the escutcheon of the Duke of Norfolk who is hereditary earl marshal. See marshal's staff, under marshal.
  5. To beat or belabor with a truncheon or club; cudgel.

Wiktionary

  1. n. obsolete A fragment or piece broken off from something, especially a broken-off piece of a spear or lance.
  2. n. obsolete The shaft of a spear.
  3. n. A short staff, a club; a cudgel.
  4. n. A baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer.
  5. n. obsolete A stout stem, as of a tree, with the branches lopped off, to produce rapid growth.
  6. n. euphemistic penis
  7. v. transitive To strike with a truncheon.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A short staff, a club; a cudgel; a shaft of a spear.
  2. n. A baton, or military staff of command.
  3. n. A stout stem, as of a tree, with the branches lopped off, to produce rapid growth.
  4. v. To beat with a truncheon.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a short stout club used primarily by policemen

Etymologies

  1. From Old French tronchon ("thick stick"), from Late Latin *troncionem, from Latin truncus. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English tronchon, piece broken off, club, from Old North French, from Vulgar Latin *trunciō, *trunciōn-, from Latin truncus, trunk; see trunk. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “The lead filled truncheon is useful but most of us do not have that.”

    Be afraid, be very afraid……. actually, don’t be. « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG

  • “The Freudian truncheon is brandished almost to absurdity when Pyramidhead traps Rose and Cybil in an elevator and begins stabbing his really long blade between the elevator doors, trying to run them through.”

    Silent Hill

  • “More like President Kruger than Prince Albert – that's the best I can do for him; and I see him on a chair, in a black frock-coat, not so very high up either; I can manage a cloud or two for him to sit on; and then his hand trailing in the clouds holds a rod, a truncheon is it?”

    Monday or Tuesday

  • “He bore in his hand what was called a truncheon, which was a sort of sceptre, very splendidly covered and adorned.”

    Richard I Makers of History

  • “Alexander Konovalov, whose ministry oversees Parfyonchikov's service, said that in some regions court marshals are used as a "truncheon" against citizens, though he did not elaborate.”

    The Moscow Times

  • “There is no excuse for a masked policemen to use a truncheon to hit in anger a man who is not facing him and has his hands in his pockets.”

    Ooooh….. I didn’t know that! « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG

  • “According to the Bucks Free Press, the local force, Thames Valley, has itself been relieved of a truncheon, "five blue strobe flashing lights", handcuffs valued at £32.69, and a six-foot tall cardboard officer that was stolen from High Wycombe station.”

    The Guardian: Hugh Muir's diary

  • “Dave not only catches him - he beats the crap out of him with a truncheon, an act that is caught on tape a la Rodney King.”

    The Huffington Post: Marshall Fine: Movie review: Rampart

  • “Others were said to depict sexual assaults with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.”

    p2pnet World Headlines – May 29, 2009

  • “The police emerged with little credit as senior officers sought to shift the blame for who was responsible for hiring the former deputy editor of the News of the World, Neil Wallis, at a time when no sane law enforcement officer would have touched him with the longest truncheon.”

    The Guardian: News International crisis: New questions and little contrition | Editorial

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. cudgel
  1. staff
  1. dub

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. club

same context (19)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. baton
  2. cudgel
  3. nightstick
  1. handcuff
  2. broadsword
  3. buckler
  1. scimitar
  2. mace
  3. leaf miner
  1. panga
  2. halberd
  3. battle-axe
  1. dirk
  2. bull's-eye
  3. javelin
  1. sword-hilt
  2. mallet
  3. machete
  1. cleaver

reverse dictionary (11)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. tronchon
  2. trunchon
  1. truncheon
  2. truncheoned
  1. warder
  2. watch-pole
  1. baton
  2. partisan
  1. truncheoneer
  2. baston
  1. batoon

tags (5)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. often misspelled
  1. British
  1. government
  1. law
  1. police

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Lists

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‘truncheon’ has been looked up 2413 times, loved by 1 person, added to 52 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 14.