1.[countableC]PMW a short thick stick used as a weapon 〔用作武器的〕短粗棍[棒]
2.take up the cudgels (on behalf of somebody/something)formalFIGHT FOR OR AGAINST something to start to fight for an idea that you believe in 努力为…奋斗,奋起捍卫
Examples from the Corpus
cudgel• Suddenly I was jumping, yelling out as the flagstone beat my feet like a cudgel or stone cricketbat.• Dostoevsky had no use for the two peasants or for the hood and the cudgel, but he wanted the cap.• She would not take up the cudgels of such a battle.• Living through the post-Darwinian debates, he invariably took up the cudgels on behalf of scientificrationalism.• Five of us, and a dozen of them, with cudgels and daggers, and two archers among them.• The rest of you in Congress, put down your cudgels of sincerity and declare a cease-fire with the public.