Word.ws English Dictionary

taken up the cudgels

taken up the cudgels is the past participle of take up the cudgels.

Meaning of take up the cudgels

Verb

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

  1. To engage in a contest.
  2. (idiomatic) to make a defence for someone or something; to intercede supportively.

Questions about taken up the cudgels

What is taken up the cudgels the past participle of?
Taken up the cudgels is the past participle of take up the cudgels.

Words near taken up the cudgels in the dictionary

  1. taken up arms
  2. taken up cudgels
  3. taken up for
  4. taken up residence
  5. taken up the cudgel for
  6. taken up the cudgels
  7. taken up the gantlet
  8. taken up the gauntlet
  9. taken up the hatchet
  10. taken up the mantle
  11. taken up the slack

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taken up the cudgels (page history and authors); take up the 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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Cite this entry: “taken up the cudgels.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taken_up_the_cudgels. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.