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(K. Panchapagesan, Mumbai)

The first syllable of ‘cudgels’ rhymes with ‘budge’, ‘nudge’, and ‘grudge’, and the following ‘e’ is like the ‘a’ in ‘china’. The word is pronounced ‘kajelz’ with the stress on the first syllable. A ‘cudgel’ is a club; it is a short heavy stick that is often used as a weapon. When you take up the cudgels for someone, what you are doing is coming to the defence of an individual. The expression can also mean to argue strongly in favour of someone or something. In British and Australian English, it is also possible to say, ‘to take up the cudgels on behalf of someone’.

*The association should take up the cudgels for the two men who have been dismissed.

When you ‘take up the cudgels against someone’, you fight against him.

*It’s about time that we took up the cudgels against crooked politicians.

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