The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cudgel \Cudg"el\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cudgeled or Cudgelled (-?ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Cudgeling or cudgelling.] To beat with a cudgel.
An he here, I would cudgel him like a dog.
--Shak.
To cudgel one's brains, to exercise one's wits.
Wiktionary
n. A beating with a cudgel. vb. (present participle of cudgel English)
Usage examples of "cudgeling".
One moment he stood by the edge of the lake, cudgeling apes in hot fury.
Kilarion now was enthusiastically cudgeling alongside Min, and I caught the fever too, wrenching one of the Great Ones down with my bare hand and breaking its wings with a single cudgel-blow before tossing it into the Pit.
To me, that seemed like a man, who has received a cudgeling, rejoicing that he had not been horsewhipped as well.
If he can't do without you, we will give him a good cudgeling, and keep him in order.
As they were about this business, they heard a drumming noise and looked out through the p'natti to see a vast brown ball, leathery hard, with arms at either edge, cudgeling itself to make a thunder roar.
He spoke as though she'd spent the last four years minding a spinning wheel or a tapestry frame, not cudgeling her brain with lessons in arts, sciences, and the theories of how and why mages could get magic to work.