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Wedge   /wɛdʒ/   Listen
noun
Wedge  n.  
1.
A piece of metal, or other hard material, thick at one end, and tapering to a thin edge at the other, used in splitting wood, rocks, etc., in raising heavy bodies, and the like. It is one of the six elementary machines called the mechanical powers.
2.
(Geom.) A solid of five sides, having a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.
3.
A mass of metal, especially when of a wedgelike form. "Wedges of gold."
4.
Anything in the form of a wedge, as a body of troops drawn up in such a form. "In warlike muster they appear, In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings."
5.
The person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos; so called after a person (Wedgewood) who occupied this position on the first list of 1828. (Cant, Cambridge Univ., Eng.)
6.
(Golf) A golf club having an iron head with the face nearly horizontal, used for lofting the golf ball at a high angle, as when hitting the ball out of a sand trap or the rough.
Fox wedge. (Mach. & Carpentry) See under Fox.
Spherical wedge (Geom.), the portion of a sphere included between two planes which intersect in a diameter.


verb
Wedge  v. t.  (past & past part. wedged; pres. part. wedging)  
1.
To cleave or separate with a wedge or wedges, or as with a wedge; to rive. "My heart, as wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain."
2.
To force or drive as a wedge is driven. "Among the crowd in the abbey where a finger Could not be wedged in more." "He 's just the sort of man to wedge himself into a snug berth."
3.
To force by crowding and pushing as a wedge does; as, to wedge one's way.
4.
To press closely; to fix, or make fast, in the manner of a wedge that is driven into something. "Wedged in the rocky shoals, and sticking fast."
5.
To fasten with a wedge, or with wedges; as, to wedge a scythe on the snath; to wedge a rail or a piece of timber in its place.
6.
(Pottery) To cut, as clay, into wedgelike masses, and work by dashing together, in order to expel air bubbles, etc.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Wedge" Quotes from Famous Books



... Wedge-shaped the Herd raced for the leading horseman; hindermost labored the fatted bulls, but in front thundered ...
— The Outcasts • W. A. Fraser
... without analogous precedent. In the later Middle Ages small craft were assigned the function in battle of trying to wedge up the rudders of great ships or bore holes between wind and water. See Fighting Instructions ...
— Some Principles of Maritime Strategy • Julian Stafford Corbett
... Ida May that she would talk to nobody for the present—especially about the connection of the captain of the Seamew with Ida May's affairs—Sheila believed she had entered a wedge which might open the way for the young man to escape from a situation which threatened both his reputation ...
— Sheila of Big Wreck Cove - A Story of Cape Cod • James A. Cooper
... allowed to prevail in regard to that ill-used but still sacred vineyard! All friends of the Church had then whispered among themselves fearfully, and had, with sad looks and grievous forebodings, acknowledged that the thin edge of the wedge had been driven into the very rock of the Establishment. The enemies of the Church were known to be powerful, numerous, and of course unscrupulous. But surely this Brutus would not raise a dagger against this Caesar! And yet, if not, what was ...
— Phineas Redux • Anthony Trollope
... yards out in the lake, a high wedge of water was sweeping toward him. At the apex of the vee, he could see the shape of a boat, its bow riding ...
— The Weakling • Everett B. Cole


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