The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Cudgel \Cudg"el\ (k?j"?l), n. [OE. kuggel; cf. G. keule club
   (with a round end), kugel ball, or perh. W. cogyl cudgel, or
   D. cudse, kuds, cudgel.]
   A staff used in cudgel play, shorter than the quarterstaff,
   and wielded with one hand; hence, any heavy stick used as a
   weapon.
   [1913 Webster]

         He getteth him a grievous crabtree cudgel and . . .
         falls to rating of them as if they were dogs. --Bunyan.
   [1913 Webster]

   Cudgel play, a fight or sportive contest with cudgels.

   To cross the cudgels, to forbear or give up the contest; --
      a phrase borrowed from the practice of cudgel players, who
      lay one cudgel over another when the contest is ended.

   To take up cudgels for, to engage in a contest in behalf of
      (some one or something).
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Cudgel \Cudg"el\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cudgeled or Cudgelled
   (-?ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Cudgeling or cudgelling.]
   To beat with a cudgel.
   [1913 Webster]

         An he here, I would cudgel him like a dog. --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]

   To cudgel one's brains, to exercise one's wits.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

cudgel
    n 1: a club that is used as a weapon
    v 1: strike with a cudgel [syn: cudgel, fustigate]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

71 Moby Thesaurus words for "cudgel":
   baste, bastinado, bat, baton, beat, belabor, belt, billy,
   billy club, birch, blackjack, bludgeon, buffet, cane, club, clue,
   cosh, cowhide, cue, cut, drub, ferule, flagellate, flail, flog,
   fustigate, give a whipping, give the stick, hickory, horsewhip,
   indication, inkling, intimation, knobkerrie, knout, lace, lash,
   lay on, mace, nightstick, notion, paddle, pistol-whip, pommel,
   pummel, quarterstaff, rattan, rawhide, rod, sandbag, scourge,
   shillelagh, smite, spank, spontoon, strap, stripe, suggestion,
   swinge, switch, telltale, thrash, thump, trounce, truncheon,
   wallop, war club, whale, whip, whop, wind