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View synonyms for truncheon

truncheon

[ truhn-chuhn ]

noun

  1. the club carried by a police officer; billy.
  2. a staff representing an office or authority; baton.
  3. the shattered shaft of a spear.
  4. Obsolete. cudgel; bludgeon.


verb (used with object)

  1. Archaic. to beat with a club.

truncheon

/ ˈtrʌntʃən /

noun

  1. a short thick club or cudgel carried by a policeman
  2. a baton of office

    a marshal's truncheon

  3. archaic.
    a short club or cudgel
  4. the shaft of a spear
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


verb

  1. tr to beat with a truncheon
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word History and Origins

Origin of truncheon1

1300–50; Middle English tronchon fragment < Middle French < Vulgar Latin *trunciōn-, stem of *trunciō literally, a lopping. See trunk, -ion
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Word History and Origins

Origin of truncheon1

C16: from Old French tronchon stump, from Latin truncus trunk; see truncate
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Example Sentences

Lukashenko responded by dispatching heavily armed security forces who beat protesters with truncheons and rifle butts, and hauled them into miserable, jam-packed prisons.

From Time

Ludmila says that she attacked a policeman bludgeoning an elderly woman with a truncheon, but in vain—the woman died.

Truncheon spoke in a low voice, and with the deepest and most respectful melancholy.

And she shot one glance at Fitzroy, who shot another at the great Truncheon, who held down his eyes.

The gesture is mainly pride, but there is misgiving in it, too: the knowledge that the pen is not as mighty as the truncheon.

I think that he actually had provided himself with a truncheon to meet all the emergencies of supreme command.

The dagger and the night-stick (the latter a stout truncheon weighted with lead) were doing the work, and effectively, too.

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truncationtrundle