cudgel (one's) brains

To try very hard to comprehend, solve, think of, or remember something. I was up all night cudgeling my brains for a way to pay off all my debts. She cudgeled her brains to remember the man's name.

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Iuri	-	Georgian
Zuleika	zoo-LAY-kə (English)	Literature
Augustina	-	Ancient Roman
EugÈNe	uu-ZHEN	French
Erika	e-REE-kah (Swedish, Norwegian), E-ree-kah (Finnish, German), ER-i-kə (English)	Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Czech, Slovene, Croatian, English, Italian
Alexandrine	al-eg-zan-DREEN (French), ah-lek-sahn-DREE-nə (German)	French, German