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.

SEE SYNONYMS FOR wedge ON THESAURUS.COM

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 wedge

In recent years there have been many issues driving a wedge between Riyadh and Washington.

Saudi Arabia’s Comic Book Fatwa |Christopher Dickey |March 28, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Bevin, along with state and national Democrats, delight in trying to drive a wedge between McConnell and Paul.

Can ‘the Traitor’ Jesse Benton Unite the GOP? |Sam Youngman |March 28, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
But he thought he might bulldog the case for a while and find a wedge for a lawsuit.

The Strange and Mysterious Death of Mrs. Jerry Lee Lewis |Richard Ben Cramer |January 11, 2014 |DAILY BEAST
Jenny Packham polka-dotted frock with a high-waisted elastic waistband and wedge heels.

Kate Middleton Looked Goddam Fabulous Today |Isabel Wilkinson |July 23, 2013 |DAILY BEAST

The wedge sneakers which promise to “make you two inches taller!”

Beyonce, Salma Hayek,Team with Gucci; Vivienne Westwood Continues to Support Julian Assange |The Fashion Beast Team |February 28, 2013 |DAILY BEAST
The wedge point may not strike back at the hammer that drives it.

The Last Shot |Frederick Palmer
Each of the sides is provided internally with a projecting piece, and an inclined plane as a wedge.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 488, May 9, 1885 |Various
The first thing was, as he supposed, to saw off a piece of the wood just long enough for a wedge.

Rollo's Experiments |Jacob Abbott
I saw several whose heads were inclosed in boards covered with leather, till they attain the form of a wedge.

Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in 1789 and 1793 |Alexander Mackenzie
Their flight was in the form of a wedge, and sometimes of a semicircle.

Travels in the Interior of North America, Part I, (Being Chapters I-XV of the London Edition, 1843) |Alexander Philipp Maximilian, Prince of Wied

British Dictionary definitions for wedge

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 wedge

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 wedge

British Dictionary definitions for wedge

noun

verb

Derived forms of wedge

Word Origin for wedge

Idioms and Phrases with 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

Words related to wedge

Example sentences from the Web for wedge

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

noun

verb

Derived forms of wedge

Word Origin for wedge

Idioms and Phrases with wedge

British Dictionary definitions for wedge