Eric Swalwell

America needs a president who knows how we live and work, who delivers on promises to those who need help, who won't use fear and hate as a political cudgel, and who works to solve our biggest problems instead of nibbling around the edges - a president who will go big, be bold, and do good, and stirs all Americans to do likewise.

American Politician

Robert Baden-Powell

One of the powerful temptations is that of the cinema palace. The cinema has undoubtedly an enormous attraction for boys, and people are constantly cudgelling their brains how to stop it. But it is one of those things which would be very difficult to stop even if it were altogether desirable.

English Soldier

Andrew Breitbart

We just assumed that Walter Cronkite was unbiased. In hindsight, it is clear that Walter Cronkite was biased and that he used feigned objectivity as the cudgel to change the American narrative from being a right of center one to being a left of center one.

American Businessman

Jill Lepore

Some people will always think they know how to make other people's marriages better, and, after a while, they'll get to cudgeling you or selling you something; the really entrepreneurial types will sell you the cudgel.

American Historian

Jane Porter

The mob is a sort of bear; while your ring is through its nose, it will even dance under your cudgel; but should the ring slip, and you lose your hold, the brute will turn and rend you.

Irish Novelist

Alex Pareene

Freedom from menial work should be a rallying cry, not a cudgel to be used against the Left. How much liberty is there in having to do something you hate in order to survive?

American Writer

Pete Buttigieg

I think there's an opportunity hopefully for religion to be not so much used as a cudgel but invoked as a way of calling us to higher values.

Franz Schubert

One bites into the brass mouthpiece of his wooden cudgel, and the other blows his cheeks out on a French horn. Do you call that Art?

Austrian Composer

Boris Pasternak

What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth.

Russian Novelist

Nikita Khrushchev

In a fight you don't stop to choose your cudgels.

Russian Statesman

The word 'cudgel' can evoke images of medieval or ancient times when clubs were common weapons.

Often Historical

'Cudgel' can symbolize authority or brute force, often used negatively in modern contexts.

Symbol of Power

As a verb, 'cudgel' implies a savage or relentless beating, stronger than just 'hit' or 'strike'.

Violent Connotations

To cudgel someone can convey an extreme effort to subdue or rob someone by beating.

Intense Effort

When 'cudgel' is about thinking, it means trying very hard to remember or solve something.

Metaphorical Thinking

'Cudgel one's brains' is idiomatic; it's used informally and is not taken literally.

Idiomatic Expression

Using 'cudgel' this way sets a tone of frustration or difficulty in problem solving.

Reflective Mood

 "Purpose" is another one that has become a cudgel that we use to bludgeon ourselves into thinking that we're not doing enough or that we're doing life right or that you're supposed to be more useful, more productive, you're supposed to be changing the world, or uncovering some particular talent that only you have