From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcudgelcud‧gel /ˈkʌdʒəl/ noun 1 [countable]PMW a short thick stick used as a weapon2 → take up the cudgels (on behalf of somebody/something)
Examples from the Corpus
cudgel• Suddenly I was jumping, yelling out as the flagstone beat my feet like a cudgel or stone cricket bat.• 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 scientific rationalism.• 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.Origin cudgel Old English cycgel 