Word.ws English Dictionary

take up cudgels

take up cudgels verb: to begin vehemently supporting a cause.

Verb

take up cudgels (third-person singular simple present takes up cudgels, present participle taking up cudgels, simple past took up cudgels, past participle taken up cudgels)

  1. To begin vehemently supporting a cause.

Forms of take up cudgels

third-person singular presenttakes up cudgels
present participletaking up cudgels
pasttook up cudgels
past participletaken up cudgels

Questions about take up cudgels

What does take up cudgels mean?
Take up cudgels means to begin vehemently supporting a cause.
What part of speech is take up cudgels?
Take up cudgels is a verb.
What is the past tense of take up cudgels?
The past tense of take up cudgels is took up cudgels.

Words near take up cudgels in the dictionary

  1. take under advisement
  2. take underwing
  3. take up
  4. take up a collection
  5. take up arms
  6. take up cudgels
  7. take up for
  8. take up residence
  9. take up the cudgel for
  10. take up the cudgels
  11. take up the gantlet

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: take up cudgels (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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