billy club

noun

Definition of billy club

: a heavy usually wooden club specifically : a police officer's club

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Synonyms for billy club

Synonyms

bastinado
(or bastinade),
bat,
baton,
billy,
bludgeon,
cane,
club,
cudgel,
nightstick,
rod,
rung
[Scottish],
sap,
shillelagh
(also shillalah),
staff,
truncheon,
waddy
[Australian]

Examples of billy club in a Sentence

rapping the shoes of the sleeping vagrant with his billy club, the policeman told him to move on

Recent Examples on the Web In the 2008 presidential election, Roman made a splash by promoting a video of two members of the New Black Panther Party standing outside a polling place in Philadelphia, one of them holding a billy club. — Michael Biesecker And Garance Burke, Star Tribune, "Trump 'army' of poll watchers led by veteran of fraud claims," 2 Nov. 2020 Lewis, a civil-rights pioneer, preached nonviolence even after a state trooper cracked his skull with a billy club as Lewis and other protesters were crossing a bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965. — Arkansas Online, "OPINION | DEBRA HALE-SHELTON: A year that needs to get better," 18 Oct. 2020 As the police, beating billy clubs on their shields, got closer, Wallace urged the protesters to not run even as police hit some of them with pepper spray and pulled many to the ground before zip-tying their wrists to make arrests. — Kristen Jordan Shamus, Freep.com, "Women lead the way on 2 pivotal days of protest in Detroit," 4 June 2020 The story of voter suppression today is no longer the stuff of billy clubs and hoses that Ms. Abrams heard about as a child. — Elaina Plott, New York Times, "Stacey Abrams Wants More Than the Vice Presidency," 16 May 2020 Testimony at the inquest revealed that on the day of his murder, Sturgus had left his billy club, handcuffs, money and identification at home. — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, "Who killed Anchorage’s first police chief? Nearly 100 years later, it’s still a mystery.," 13 Jan. 2020 The tooth decay, tangled hair, and body odor that can come from being denied access to basic resources is a crimson flag waved in front of a bull with a billy club. — Kim Kelly, Allure, "Angels With Dirty Faces," 12 July 2019 Police on horseback, swinging billy clubs, charged and brutally beat civil rights marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. — al.com, "Who killed James Reeb? NPR ‘White Lies’ podcast shines light on 1965 Selma murder," 19 June 2019 Other photos show smiling soldiers detaining a young man while yanking him by his curly hair and a group of officers with billy clubs beating a man who’s trying to protect himself with his hands. — Andalusia Knoll, Teen Vogue, "What to Know About the 1968 Tlatelolco Plaza Student Massacre," 2 Oct. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'billy club.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Cite this Entry

“Billy club.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/billy%20club. Accessed 7 Mar. 2021.

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More Definitions for billy club

billy club

noun

bil·ly club | \ ˈbi-lē- \

Kids Definition of billy club

: nightstick

Comments on billy club

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