From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbludgeonblud‧geon1 /ˈblʌdʒən/ verb [transitive] 1 HITto hit someone several times with something heavy He was bludgeoned to death with a hammer.2 FORCE somebody TO DO somethingto force someone to do something by making threats or arguing with thembludgeon into I won’t let myself be bludgeoned into marriage.3 → bludgeon your way through/to/past etc somebody/something→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
bludgeon• After an hour our man was still bludgeoning away.• There they bludgeoned him with clubs and guns and left him for dead.• Instead of being coerced or bludgeoned into submission, the Celtic Church was simply subsumed.• On the other hand, by refraining from identifying himself he risked being bludgeoned or arrested.• She is deeply angry about this and her approach is to bludgeon the tar out of him.• It came forward with these proposals, and it has attempted to bludgeon them through the House.• Ruddock had been bludgeoned to death in his beach-side home.bludgeoned to death• The son of a caretaker who had annoyed them was waylaid by four of them and bludgeoned to death.• They shot or bludgeoned to death numerous others in separate incidents.• She had been bludgeoned to death with a champagne bottle by her husband David, 48, who then killed himself.bludgeonbludgeon2 noun [countable] PMWa heavy stick with a thick end, used as a weaponExamples from the Corpus
bludgeon• The other is the old bludgeon of robber barons, industry consolidation.Origin bludgeon2 (1700-1800) Perhaps from Old French bougeon, from bouge “stick for hitting people” 