How to Use cudgel in a Sentence

cudgel

noun

• If the last episode turned the whole show sour for you, the line is a cudgel: like it or not, there’s more on the way.
  — Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 5 Mar. 2021
• With an icon of a bygone era at his back, Tyler wields his success like a cudgel.
  — Sheldon Pearc, The New Yorker, 30 June 2021
• It cannot be eaten or worn, lived in or wielded as a cudgel.
  — Elizabeth Barber, Harper's Magazine, 8 Feb. 2024
• Angry that for so long money had been a cudgel used against me.
  — TIME, 13 Feb. 2024
• They were found tied up and had been tortured and beaten with bibles and wooden cudgels.
  — Zachary Halaschak, Washington Examiner, 16 Jan. 2020
• The goal is two-pronged: Sanctions act as both a punishment for Russia's ruling class and a cudgel to try to force Putin to back down.
  — Jordan Valinsky, CNN, 21 Mar. 2022
• The goal is two-pronged: Sanctions act as both a punishment for Russia’s ruling class and a cudgel to try to force Putin to back down.
  — Allison Morrow, CNN, 2 Mar. 2022
• This word derives from the Greek rhopalos, for a club or cudgel, thicker toward one end than the other.
  — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Dec. 2022
• But many of the groups who fought for these funds say that the presence of the cap-and-trade revenue has been used as a cudgel against the push for additional funding.
  — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 4 June 2020
• But Bungie has had a fair deal of success using copyright law as a legal cudgel against the makers of the cheats themselves.
  — Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 8 Sep. 2023
• The incumbent meat industry has used this as a cudgel against the startup.
  — Time, 20 July 2023
• There is also the cudgel of public pressure, which so far seems firmly in favor of the students.
  — Felipe De La Hoz, The New Republic, 8 July 2020
• Goodell and the league certainly have a sharp cudgel to dangle over anyone’s head.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 16 Oct. 2021
• Colbert asked: People who want to make hay in Washington are going to try to use your adult son as a cudgel against you.
  — Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 20 Dec. 2020
• Most of the time, Black on Black crime is invoked not in a sincere way, but rather it's used as a cudgel with which to beat back talk about police violence.
  — Dana Taylor, USA TODAY, 4 Sep. 2023
• Newman said that showed how some members of the City Council think now is the time to give law enforcement a cudgel to move people living on the streets.
  — Benjamin Oreskes, Los Angeles Times, 8 Nov. 2020
• However, over the years both parties have tied it to government spending and used the debt ceiling as a cudgel to force the hand of the president.
  — Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 15 May 2023
• Yang's mention of his endorsement by the police captains union was more of a cudgel against Adams than anything else.
  — Gregory Krieg, CNN, 17 June 2021
• Police freed 14 members of the Ngabé Buglé indigenous group who had been tied up and beaten with wooden cudgels and Bibles.
  — USA TODAY, 17 Jan. 2020
• Not so much because that’s what people wanted to do, but because people wanted to use it as a cudgel against me.
  — Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 28 May 2021
• And the issue has become a political cudgel for Trump, barely six weeks removed from the White House.
  — Katherine Doyle, Washington Examiner, 10 Mar. 2021
• That mythical time in San Francisco’s past has been celebrated — and used as a cudgel to attack the present — since the Gold Rush.
  — Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle, 20 Mar. 2022
• Anton sees the former Buckleyite bullhorn as a cudgel for policing the discourse.
  — Sam Adler-Bell, The New Republic, 3 Dec. 2021
• For much of this season, UConn has been carrying disrespect around like a cudgel.
  — Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 26 Mar. 2023
• His Democratic challengers have used his support for the ex-president as a cudgel.
  — Todd J. Gillman, Dallas News, 25 Aug. 2023
• There are some efforts among members of Congress to defang the power of the debt ceiling as a political cudgel.
  — Grace Segers, The New Republic, 15 Dec. 2021
• Republicans have used gasoline prices, one of the most visible signs of inflation, as a cudgel against Biden and Democrats.
  — Dallas News, 19 Oct. 2022
• From one angle, Cardi was just being savvy—discussing a taboo subject on her own terms before others could use it as a cudgel.
  — Carrie Battan, The New Yorker, 29 Nov. 2019
• For years now, Putin’s place in Republican lore has been that of a cudgel wielded by the American left to impugn and impeach their beloved leader.
  — Laura Jedeed, The New Republic, 26 Feb. 2022
• The letter is the latest in a line of expert and intraparty concerns raised about the misuse of the impeachment process against Mayorkas, arguing that it is being used as a political cudgel.
  — Jacqueline Alemany, Washington Post, 6 Feb. 2024

Last Updated: 5 Sep 2024