cudgelling

"You rascal," said I, "a cudgelling was the upshot of your last.

The Fool Errant Maurice Hewlett 1892

And all the time, deliriously happy, talking in the gentlest and most delicate terms that might not offend her sensitive ears, I was cudgelling my brains in an effort to divine what I was expected to do.

Chapter 18 2010

Still he was loth to depart, and, cudgelling his brains for a pretext, he set up a rambling discourse on River Plate weather.

CHAPTER XXIX 2010

He was cudgelling his brains to keep the conversation going.

THE HOBO AND THE FAIRY 2010

This question he has asked me every day since the first day Mr. Pike began cudgelling his brains over it.

CHAPTER L 2010

Edna nodded carelessly, though inwardly anxious and cudgelling her brains for something to turn the conversation.

Amateur Night 2010

And as he continued to stare at her hat and think, the hurt he had received passed away, and he found himself cudgelling his brains for some way out of the muddle -- for some method by which she could remain on Berande.

Chapter 13 2010

That was the question, of course, and I'd been cudgelling my wits for an answer - and in a heaven-sent flash it came to me, the perfect excuse that might also be my salvation, if only I played it properly; the one thing that might turn this selfish lunatic from his fatal resolve.

THE NUMBERS 2010

Good for us brain-cudgelling fans ... though that probably means no more official announcements but a last big one when casting is complete.

Lena Headey cast as Cersei 2009

At that moment, the cudgelling, multiplied by a hundred hands, became zealous, blows with the flat of the sword were mingled with it, it was a perfect storm of whips and clubs; the convicts bent before it, a hideous obedience was evoked by the torture, and all held their peace, darting glances like chained wolves.

Les Miserables 2008