Word.ws English Dictionary

truncheon

UK/ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən//ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/

truncheon noun: a short staff, a club; a cudgel.

truncheon: a short staff, a club; a cudgel
Image: Plani, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

truncheon (plural truncheons)

  1. A short staff, a club; a cudgel.
    • with his troncheon he so rudely stroke / Cymochles twise1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 39
    • One is a large ball of iron, fastened with three chains to a strong truncheon or staff of about two feet long; the other is of mixed metal, in the form of a channelled melon, fastened also to a staff by a triple chain; these balls weigh eight pounds.1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 52
  2. A baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer.
    • Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword / The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe / Become them with one half so good a grace / As mercy does.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • The imputed virtue of folios full of knockdown arguments is supposed to reside in them, just as some of the majesty of the British Empire dwells in the constable’s truncheon.1874–1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], published 1881, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    nightstick, baton
  3. (obsolete) A fragment or piece broken off from something, especially a broken-off piece of a spear or lance.
    • Therewith asunder in the midst it brast, / And in his hand nought but the troncheon left[…].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  4. (obsolete) The shaft of a spear.
  5. (obsolete) A stout stem, as of a tree, with the branches lopped off, to produce rapid growth.
    • Truncheons of seven or eight feet long, thrust two feet into the earth […] when once rooted, may be cut at six inches above ground1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal...
  6. (euphemistic) A penis.
    • Then, being on his knees between my legs, he drew up his shirt and bared all his hairy thighs, and stiff staring truncheon, red-topt and rooted into a thicket of curls1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC

Verb

truncheon (third-person singular simple present truncheons, present participle truncheoning, simple past and past participle truncheoned)

  1. (transitive) To strike with a truncheon.
    • If captains were of my wind they would truncheon you outc. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...

truncheon meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

truncheon in Urdu

ڈنڈا, لٹھ, ٹکڑا

truncheon in Malayalam

പദവി, സ്വരക്ഷയ്ക്കുവേണ്ടിയുള്ള കുട്ടിക്കോൽ, കുറുന്തടി

truncheon in Kannada

ಗಿಡ್ಡಕೋಲು, ಗುದಿಗೆ

Synonyms of truncheon

Forms of truncheon

Noun
pluraltruncheons
Verb
third-person singular presenttruncheons
present participletruncheoning
past participletruncheoned
pasttruncheoned

Origin of truncheon

From Middle English tronchoun, from Old French tronchon (“thick stick”), from Late Latin *troncionem, from Latin truncus.

Words formed from truncheon

Questions about truncheon

What does truncheon mean?
Truncheon means a short staff, a club; a cudgel.
What is truncheon in Urdu?
Truncheon in Urdu is ڈنڈا, لٹھ, ٹکڑا. See Truncheon meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is truncheon?
Truncheon can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce truncheon?
Truncheon is pronounced /ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/ (UK).
What is the plural of truncheon?
The plural of truncheon is truncheons.

Words near truncheon in the dictionary

  1. truncator
  2. truncators
  3. truncature
  4. truncatures
  5. trunch
  6. truncheon
  7. truncheoned
  8. truncheoneer
  9. truncheoneers
  10. truncheoner
  11. truncheoners

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: truncheon (page history and authors); truncheon (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); truncheon (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); truncheon (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-truncheon.ogg.

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