wedge
/wɛd͡ʒ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms wedges wedging wedged
- noun One of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, securing, or levering. “Stick a wedge under the door, will you? It keeps blowing shut.”
- noun A piece (of food, metal, wood etc.) having this shape. “Can you cut me a wedge of cheese?”
- noun (geometry) A five-sided polyhedron with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.
- noun (architecture) A voussoir, one of the wedge-shaped blocks forming an arch or vault.
- noun (figurative) Something that creates a division, gap or distance between things. “drive a wedge between [persons, peoples, camps, allies, etc.]”
- noun (golf) A type of iron club used for short, high trajectories; a shot made with such a club.
- noun One of a pair of wedge-heeled shoes, which lift the heel of the foot from the ground.
- noun (typography, US) A háček.
- verb (transitive) To support or secure using a wedge. “I wedged open the window with a screwdriver.”
- verb (ambitransitive) To force into a narrow gap. “He had wedged the package between the wall and the back of the sofa.”
- verb (transitive) To pack (people or animals) together tightly into a mass.
- verb (transitive) To work wet clay by cutting or kneading for the purpose of homogenizing the mass and expelling air bubbles.
- verb (computing, informal, intransitive) Of a computer program or system: to get stuck in an unresponsive state. “My Linux kernel wedged after I installed the latest update.”
- verb (transitive) To cleave with a wedge.
- verb (transitive) To force or drive with a wedge.
- verb (transitive) To shape into a wedge.
- noun (UK, Cambridge University slang) The person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
wedge issue salami tactics culture war chevron skein hero sandwich more at submarine sandwich turned v scotch wooden wedge wedge shape cuneus bomber grinder hero hoagie hoagy Cuban sandwich Italian sandwich poor boy sub submarine submarine sandwich torpedo zep hacek wedge heel chock lodge stick
Etymology
From Middle English wegge (“wedge”), from Old English weċġ (“wedge”), from Proto-West Germanic *wagi, from Proto-Germanic *wagjaz.
From Wedgewood, surname of the person who occupied this position on the first list of 1828.
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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. See Illust. of Mechanical powers, under Mechanical.
- noun A solid of five sides, having a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.
- verb 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." Shak.
- verb To force or drive as a wedge is driven.
Etymology [OE. wegge, AS. wecg; akin to D. wig, wigge, OHG. wecki, G. weck a (wedge-shaped) loaf, Icel. veggr, Dan. vægge, Sw. vigg, and probably to Lith. vagis a peg. Cf. Wigg.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “wedge”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details