[Not found before the 18th c.: origin unknown.
Blogon (with g = j) is quoted by Dr. Whitley Stokes from the Cornish drama Origo Mundi (? 14th c.), but its relation to the English is uncertain. Other Celtic etymologies sometimes proposed are on many grounds untenable. A Du. vb. bludsen to bruise, has also been compared; and it has been suggested that the word is of cant origin, connected with blood.]
A short stout stick or club, with one end loaded or thicker and heavier than the other, used as a weapon.
1730. Bailey, Bludgeon, an oaken stick or club.
1732. Ipswich Gaz., 15–22 April, 2/1. They stabb’d him in several Places, cut and batter’d his Face and Head all over with Swords and Bludgeons, and afterwards cut his Ears quite off.
1755. Gentl. Mag., XXV. 135. These villains … knocked him down with a bludgeon.
1798. in Ld. Auckland’s Corr. (1862), III. 413. They were attacked by nine men … armed with swords and short bludgeons.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl. (1873), 59. Scarce any weapons but staves and bludgeons had been yet seen among them.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xviii. 103. Called by the annalists the parliament of bats or bludgeons.
b. Comb. bludgeon-man, one armed with a bludgeon; bludgeon-work, fighting with bludgeons, hand-to-hand fighting.
1797. W. Taylor, in Month. Rev., XXII. 528. Assisted by the bludgeon-men of some powerful faction.
1813. Wellington, Lett., 5 Aug., in Gurw., Disp., X. 602. The battle of the 28th was fair bludgeon work.
