Word.ws English Dictionary

bludgeon

UK/ˈblʌd͡ʒ.ən/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/ˈblʊd͡ʒ.ən/

bludgeon noun: a short, heavy club, often of wood, which is thicker or loaded at one end.

Noun

bludgeon (plural bludgeons)

  1. A short, heavy club, often of wood, which is thicker or loaded at one end.
    • We smashed the radio with a steel bludgeon.
  2. (figuratively) Something used to coerce someone.
    • Because it could be used as a bludgeon to force industries to accept any terms, however unreasonable or unfair, the Overton-Russell amendment ought to be discarded by the House of Representatives.1940 August 29, “Action in the Senate”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
    • In our country Marxism is neither a philosophy nor a scientific method. It is a bludgeon. It falls into the category of police power.1982, Boris Pasternak, translated by Elliott Mossman and Margaret Wettlin, “Diary”, in Elliott Mossman, editor, The Correspondence of Boris Pasternak and Olga Freidenberg, 1910-1954, New York, N.Y....

Verb

bludgeon (third-person singular simple present bludgeons, present participle bludgeoning, simple past and past participle bludgeoned)

  1. (transitive) To strike or hit with something hard, usually on the head; to club.
    • The apprehended rioter was bludgeoned to death.
    • They didn't get shot to death in hold-ups, strangled to death in rapes, stabbed to death in saloons, bludgeoned to death with axes by parents or children or die summarily by some other act of God.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168
    Synonyms:
    cudgel
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To coerce someone, as if with a bludgeon.
    • Their favorite method was bludgeoning us with the same old arguments in favor of their opinions.
    • Gianna Parasini: You've never worked in the corporate world, have you, Commander? You can't bludgeon through bureaucracy.
    • Shepard: I can bludgeon pretty hard.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Noveria
    Synonyms:
    harass, pummel

bludgeon meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

bludgeon in Tamil

உலக்கை, கனத்த தடி

bludgeon in Urdu

چھوٹی لاٹھی, چوب دستی کرنا, پٹائی کرنا

bludgeon in Malayalam

club, cudgel, stick
പരിഘം, പലിഘം, ഗദ, ഖേടം, ഇരുമ്പുഗദ, മുസലം
cudgel, batter, club
കുറുന്തടി കൊണ്ടു പ്രഹരിക്കുക, ഗദ കൊണ്ടടിക്കുക, ഗദകൊണ്ടു താടിക്കുക, മർദ്ദിക്കുക, വടികൊണ്ടടിക്കുക, അടിച്ചു തകർക്കുക
compel, coerce, force
ബലാൽക്കാരമായി അനുസരിപ്പിക്കുക, നിർബന്ധിക്കുക, സമ്മർദ്ദം ചെലുത്തുക, ഞെരുക്കുക, ശക്തിയായി സമ്മർദ്ദംചെലുത്തുക, ഹേമിക്കുക

bludgeon in Kannada

ಬಡಿಗೆ, ತಡಿ, ಲಾಠಿಯಿಂದ ಅಪ್ಪಳಿಸು, ಸದೆಬಡಿ, ಬಲಾತ್ಕರಿಸು, ಒತ್ತಾಯಮಾಡು
More languagesFewer languages
bludgeon in Sanskrit
गदा gadā
bludgeon in Arabic
هِرَاوَة hirāwa, يَهْرِي yahrī

Examples of bludgeon in a sentence

  • We needn't swing the bludgeon when bargaining is still on the table.
  • But to the gullible spectators-within-the play, it is a political bludgeoning.
  • A lieutenant had to bludgeon him into unconsciousness before he could be stopped.

All 18 example sentences with bludgeon

Synonyms of bludgeon

Forms of bludgeon

Noun
pluralbludgeons
Verb
third-person singular presentbludgeons
present participlebludgeoning
past participlebludgeoned
pastbludgeoned

Origin of bludgeon

First attested in 1730. Origin uncertain, perhaps of Cornish origin (recorded as blogon c. 1450) or from Middle French bougeon, a diminutive of bouge (“club, stick”).

Words formed from bludgeon

Words that rhyme with bludgeon

Questions about bludgeon

What does bludgeon mean?
Bludgeon means a short, heavy club, often of wood, which is thicker or loaded at one end.
What is bludgeon in Tamil?
Bludgeon in Tamil is உலக்கை, கனத்த தடி. See Bludgeon meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is bludgeon?
Bludgeon can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce bludgeon?
Bludgeon is pronounced /ˈblʌd͡ʒ.ən/ (UK).
What is the plural of bludgeon?
The plural of bludgeon is bludgeons.

Words near bludgeon in the dictionary

  1. bluckets
  2. blud
  3. Bludenz
  4. bludge
  5. bludged
  6. bludgeon
  7. bludgeoned
  8. bludgeoner
  9. bludgeoners
  10. bludgeoning
  11. bludgeonings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bludgeon (page history and authors); bludgeon (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bludgeon (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bludgeon (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); bludgeon (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bludgeon.ogg, en-au-bludgeon.ogg.

Cite this entry: “bludgeon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bludgeon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.