Cudgel vs Baton - What's the difference?

Cudgel is a synonym of baton.

is a short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.

is to strike with a cudgel.

(en noun)

A short heavy club with a rounded head used as a weapon.

The guard hefted his cudgel menacingly and looked at the inmates. The threat to swing glinted in his eye.

* 1883 , (Howard Pyle), (The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood)

Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that every day they gained in skill and strength.

* Bunyan

He getteth him a grievous crabtree cudgel and falls to rating of them as if they were dogs.

* club * singlestick

To strike with a cudgel.

The officer was violently cudgeled down in the midst of the rioters, with his own beatstick no less.

* Shakespeare

I would cudgel him like a dog if he would say so.

To exercise (one's wits or brains).

(wikipedia baton)

(en noun)

A staff or truncheon, used for various purposes; as, the baton of a field marshal

(music) The stick of a conductor in musical performances.

(sports) An object transferred by runners in a relay race.

(lb) A short stout club used primarily by policemen; a truncheon (UK).

(heraldiccharge) An abatement in coats of arms to denote illegitimacy. (Also spelled batune, baston).

(heraldiccharge) A riband with the ends cut off, resembling a baton, as shown on a coat of arms.

* batonic

(en verb)

To strike with a baton.

* * The Observer's Book of Heraldry , by Charles Mackinnon of Dunakin, p. 58.

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