Meaning & use
vouge
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Meaning
nouncountablespecialistarchaic
A long medieval weapon with a wide, curved, knife-like blade fixed to the end of a wooden pole, used by foot soldiers.
Grammar: A historical word for an object: a soldier carrying a vouge.
Patterns
- wield a vouge
- a vouge and a shield
The museum displays a vouge that was carried by a foot soldier in the fifteenth century.
A guard stood at the gate with a vouge over his shoulder.
Historians say the vouge was used for cutting at riders and pulling them from their horses.
Word forms
| plural | vouges |
|---|
Common combinations
- wield a vouge
- The soldier struggled to wield a vouge in the narrow street.
- vouge blade
- The vouge blade was shaped like a large cleaver.
- a vouge and a halberd
- The armory held a vouge and a halberd side by side.
- carry a vouge
- The sergeant would carry a vouge on parade.
- an iron vouge
- An iron vouge was found in the castle moat.
Synonyms and how they differ
- voulge
- Voulge is simply another spelling of vouge and is used in the same way.
- glaive
- Glaive is another pole weapon with a single-edged blade, and the term is used more loosely, including in fantasy writing.
- halberd
- A halberd has an axe blade and a spike, whereas a vouge has a broad cutting blade only.
- bill
- A bill is a hooked blade on a pole that began as a farm tool, while a vouge was made specifically for combat.
Word family
Commonly confused: vouge or vogue?
vouge vs vogue
Vogue means fashion or popularity, as in a vogue for short hair, and has no link to the weapon even though the spelling is close.
Practice
What is a vouge?
Choose one answer.
A vouge is a pole weapon with a wide cutting blade. The fashion meaning belongs to vogue, which is easy to confuse in spelling.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “vouge”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.