Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A short heavy club, usually of wood, that is thicker or loaded at one end.
  • transitive verb To hit with a heavy club or similar blunt instrument.
  • transitive verb To strike with strong force.
  • transitive verb To overcome, often by intimidation or coercion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A heavy stick, particularly one with one end loaded or thicker and heavier than the other, used as an offensive weapon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A short stick, with one end loaded, or thicker and heavier that the other, used as an offensive weapon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A short, heavy club, often of wood, which is thicker or loaded at one end.
  • verb To strike or hit with something hard, usually on the head; to club.
  • verb To coerce someone, as if with a bludgeon.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb overcome or coerce as if by using a heavy club
  • verb strike with a club or a bludgeon
  • noun a club used as a weapon

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

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