truncheon
/ˈtrʌn(t)ʃ(ə)n
/noun chiefly British
1A short, thick stick carried as a weapon by a police officer.Rowan and Mayne limited constables' weapons to the truncheon, carried concealed until 1863....
- In France in May 1968, the gendarmerie and the police used water cannon, tear gas and truncheons to put down three-week-long Sorbonne riots, injuring nearly 400 persons.
- Police in riot gear and carrying truncheons pushed them back, and several were arrested.
Synonyms
club, baton, cudgel, bludgeon;
stick, staff;
North American billy, billy club, blackjack, nightstick
British informal life preserver, cosh
1.1A staff or baton acting as a symbol of authority, especially that used by the Earl Marshal.The truncheon, or baton, is a military commander's sign of office....
- The truncheons behind the shield bearing the duke's Arms refer to his office as Earl Marshal.
Origin
Middle English (denoting a piece broken off (especially from a spear), also a cudgel): from Old French tronchon 'stump', based on Latin truncus 'trunk'.
Rhymes
- proctoptosis
- proctor
- proctoral
- proctorial
- proctorial cycle
- proctorially
- proctorial veto
- proctorial year
- proctorization
- Proctor method
- Proctor number
- Proctor order
- proctorrhagia
- proctor's bulldog
- proctorship
- Proctor's order
- Proctor, William Cooper
- proctoscope
- proctoscopy
- proctosigmoidoscope
- proctosigmoidoscopic
- proctosigmoidoscopy
- proctotomy
- proctotrupid
- proctotrupoid