wedge

[ wej ]

/ wɛdʒ /

noun

a piece of hard material with two principal faces meeting in a sharply acute angle, for raising, holding, or splitting objects by applying a pounding or driving force, as from a hammer. Compare machine(def 3b).

a piece of anything of like shape: a wedge of pie.

a cuneiform character or stroke of this shape.

Meteorology. (formerly) an elongated area of relatively high pressure.

something that serves to part, split, divide, etc.: The quarrel drove a wedge into the party organization.

Military. (formerly) a tactical formation generally in the form of a V with the point toward the enemy.

Golf. a club with an iron head the face of which is nearly horizontal, for lofting the ball, especially out of sand traps and high grass.

Optics. optical wedge.

haček.

Chiefly Coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island. a hero sandwich.

a wedge heel or shoe with such a heel.

verb (used with object), wedged, wedg·ing.

to separate or split with or as if with a wedge (often followed by open, apart, etc.): to wedge open a log.

to insert or fix with a wedge.

to pack or fix tightly: to wedge clothes into a suitcase.

to thrust, drive, fix, etc., like a wedge: He wedged himself through the narrow opening.

Ceramics. to pound (clay) in order to remove air bubbles.

to fell or direct the fall of (a tree) by driving wedges into the cut made by the saw.

verb (used without object), wedged, wedg·ing.

to force a way like a wedge (usually followed by in, into, through, etc.): The box won't wedge into such a narrow space.

Origin of wedge

before 900; Middle English wegge (noun), Old English wecg; cognate with dialectal German Weck (Old High German wecki), Old Norse veggr

SYNONYMS FOR wedge

14 cram, jam, stuff, crowd, squeeze.

regional variation note for wedge

10. See hero sandwich.

OTHER WORDS FROM wedge

wedge·like, adjective un·wedge, verb (used with object), un·wedged, un·wedg·ing.

Words nearby wedge

wedding ring, wedding-cake, wedekind, wedel, wedeln, wedge, wedge bone, wedge heel, wedge issue, wedge pressure, wedge resection

Example sentences from the Web for unwedge

They were too busy fighting to get their breath back, and to unwedge themselves from the sidecar.

Dave Dawson at Dunkirk |Robert Sydney Bowen

British Dictionary definitions for unwedge

wedge

/ (wɛdʒ) /

noun

a block of solid material, esp wood or metal, that is shaped like a narrow V in cross section and can be pushed or driven between two objects or parts of an object in order to split or secure them

any formation, structure, or substance in the shape of a wedge a wedge of cheese

something such as an idea, action, etc, that tends to cause division

a shoe with a wedge heel

golf a club with a face angle of more than 50°, used for bunker shots (sand wedge) or pitch shots (pitching wedge)

a wedge-shaped extension of the high pressure area of an anticyclone, narrower than a ridge

mountaineering a wedge-shaped device, formerly of wood, now usually of hollow steel, for hammering into a crack to provide an anchor point

any of the triangular characters used in cuneiform writing

(formerly) a body of troops formed in a V-shape

photog a strip of glass coated in such a way that it is clear at one end but becomes progressively more opaque towards the other end: used in making measurements of transmission density

British slang a bribe

thin end of the wedge anything unimportant in itself that implies the start of something much larger

verb

(tr) to secure with or as if with a wedge

to squeeze or be squeezed like a wedge into a narrow space

(tr) to force apart or divide with or as if with a wedge

Derived forms of wedge

wedgelike, adjective wedgy, adjective

Word Origin for wedge

Old English wecg; related to Old Saxon weggi, Old High German wecki, Old Norse veggr wall

Idioms and Phrases with unwedge

wedge

see thin edge of the wedge.

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

wedge

noun

verb (used with object), wedged, wedg·ing.

verb (used without object), wedged, wedg·ing.

Origin of wedge

SYNONYMS FOR wedge

regional variation note for wedge

OTHER WORDS FROM wedge

Words nearby wedge

Example sentences from the Web for unwedge

British Dictionary definitions for unwedge

noun

verb

Derived forms of wedge

Word Origin for wedge

Idioms and Phrases with unwedge

BROWSE DICTIONARY

Learning

wedge

noun

verb (used with object), wedged, wedg·ing.

verb (used without object), wedged, wedg·ing.

Origin of wedge

SYNONYMS FOR wedge

regional variation note for wedge

OTHER WORDS FROM wedge

Words nearby wedge

Example sentences from the Web for unwedge

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []) .push({}); British Dictionary definitions for unwedge

noun

verb

Derived forms of wedge

Word Origin for wedge

Idioms and Phrases with unwedge

British Dictionary definitions for unwedge