truncheon

From Middle English tronchoun, from Old French tronchon (“thick stick”), from Late Latin *troncionem, from Latin truncus.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/, /ˈtɹʌnʃən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ʌnt͡ʃən

truncheon (plural truncheons)

1. A short staff, a club; a cudgel.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 39:

     with his troncheon he so rudely stroke / Cymochles twise

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 52:

     One is a large ball of iron, fastened with three chains to a strong truncheon or staff of about two feet long; the other is of mixed metal, in the form of a channelled melon, fastened also to a staff by a triple chain; these balls weigh eight pounds.

2. A baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer.

   Synonyms: (US) nightstick, baton

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 60:

     Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword / The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe / Become them with one half so good a grace / As mercy does.

3. (obsolete) A fragment or piece broken off from something, especially a broken-off piece of a spear or lance.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Therewith asunder in the midst it brast, / And in his hand nought but the troncheon left […].

4. (obsolete) The shaft of a spear.
5. (obsolete) A stout stem, as of a tree, with the branches lopped off, to produce rapid growth.
   • 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

     Truncheons of seven or eight feet long, thrust two feet into the earth […] when once rooted, may be cut at six inches above ground

6. (euphemistic) A penis.
   • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:

     Then, being on his knees between my legs, he drew up his shirt and bared all his hairy thighs, and stiff staring truncheon, red-topt and rooted into a thicket of curls

• bludgeon

truncheon (third-person singular simple present truncheons, present participle truncheoning, simple past and past participle truncheoned)

1. (transitive) To strike with a truncheon.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

     If captains were of my wind they would truncheon you out