How to Use cudgel in a Sentence

cudgel

noun
  • 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
  • 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
  • Trump has wielded them like a cudgel to get better trade deals with other countries.
    — Bart Jansen, USA Today, 30 Oct. 2025
  • Children are both a key motivator and cudgel for these men.
    — Grace Byron, Vulture, 8 Sep. 2025
  • The incumbent meat industry has used this as a cudgel against the startup.
    — Time, 20 July 2023
  • Goodell and the league certainly have a sharp cudgel to dangle over anyone’s head.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 16 Oct. 2021
  • Others say voting access has been a cudgel of their oppression.
    — John Bacon, USA TODAY, 22 Oct. 2020
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • They are often used by prosecutors as a cudgel to scare people into plea deals, experts say.
    — Madeline Buckley, Chicago Tribune, 14 Sep. 2022
  • 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
  • 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
  • While Kelso used a happy cudgel to elicit a laugh, Kelley employed a scalpel.
    — Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman, 25 Dec. 2025
  • His Democratic challengers have used his support for the ex-president as a cudgel.
    — Todd J. Gillman, Dallas News, 25 Aug. 2023
  • For much of this season, UConn has been carrying disrespect around like a cudgel.
    — Dan Wolken, USA TODAY, 26 Mar. 2023
  • Anton sees the former Buckleyite bullhorn as a cudgel for policing the discourse.
    — Sam Adler-Bell, The New Republic, 3 Dec. 2021
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • And when deployed as a cudgel rather than a scalpel, public shaming is woefully imperfect as a means of justice and transparency.
    — Washington Post, 18 Apr. 2021
  • 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
  • But all sides must compromise and avoid using the crisis as a cudgel in their narrative for the November election.
    — Editorial Board Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 3 Aug. 2020
  • Others say the threat of patent waivers can act as a cudgel, compelling big pharmaceutical companies to share their patents and expertise.
    — Jon Cohen, Science | AAAS, 26 May 2021
  • Building and construction unions no longer can use their old rhetorical cudgel in this debate — calling prefab homes flimsy and unsafe.
    — U T Editorial Board, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Apr. 2026
  • Just the mere threat of a False Claims Act investigation is a powerful cudgel, lawyers say.
    — Jessica Guynn, USA Today, 22 Oct. 2025
  • 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
  • And there are others who want to use it as a cudgel against history, against the Jewish people, against the State of Israel.
    — Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Voices on the British Right have used the scandal as a cudgel against Labour and Starmer in particular.
    — Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 3 Feb. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cudgel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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