From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Wedge \Wedge\ (w[e^]j), noun [OE. wegge, AS. wecg; akin to D. wig, wigge, OHG. wecki, G. weck a (wedge-shaped) loaf, Icel. veggr, Dan. v[ae]gge, Sw. vigg, and probably to Lith. vagis a peg. Cf. {Wigg}.]
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. See Illust. of {Mechanical powers}, under {Mechanical}.
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.'' --Shak.
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. --Milton.
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.] --C. A. Bristed.
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. [PJC]
{Fox wedge}. (Mach. & Carpentry) See under {Fox}.
{Spherical wedge} (Geom.), the portion of a sphere included between two planes which intersect in a diameter.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Wedge \Wedge\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Wedged}; p. pr. & vb. n. {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.'' --Shak.
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. --Shak.
He 's just the sort of man to wedge himself into a snug berth. --Mrs. J. H. Ewing.
3. To force by crowding and pushing as a wedge does; as, to wedge one's way. --Milton.
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. --Dryden.
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. --Tomlinson.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: any shape that is triangular in cross section [syn: {wedge shape}, {cuneus}]
2: a large sandwich made of a long crusty roll split lengthwise and filled with meats and cheese (and tomato and onion and lettuce and condiments); different names are used in different sections of the United States [syn: {bomber}, {grinder}, {hero}, {hero sandwich}, {hoagie}, {hoagy}, {Cuban sandwich}, {Italian sandwich}, {poor boy}, {sub}, {submarine}, {submarine sandwich}, {torpedo}, {zep}]
3: a diacritical mark (an inverted circumflex) placed above certain letters (such as c) to indicate pronunciation [syn: {hacek}]
4: a heel that is an extension of the sole of the shoe [syn: {wedge heel}]
5: (golf) an iron with considerable loft and a broad sole
6: something solid that is usable as an inclined plane (shaped like a V) that can be pushed between two things to separate them
7: a block of wood used to prevent the sliding or rolling of a heavy object [syn: {chock}]
verb
1: fix, force, or implant; "lodge a bullet in the table" [syn: {lodge}, {stick}, {deposit}] [ant: {dislodge}]
2: squeeze like a wedge into a tight space; "I squeezed myself into the corner" [syn: {squeeze}, {force}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
101 Moby Thesaurus words for "wedge": arrowhead, articulate, batten, batten down, bed, bolt, buckle, butt, button, character, clasp, cleat, clip, confirm, crowbar, cuneiform, deep-dye, define, demotic character, determinative, dovetail, embed, engraft, engrave, entrench, establish, etch, fix, found, get a foothold, get leverage, grammalogue, ground, hasp, hieratic symbol, hieroglyph, hieroglyphic, hieroglyphics, hinge, hiragana, hitch, hook, ideogram, ideograph, impact, implant, impress, imprint, infix, ingrain, inscribe, jam, jimmy, joint, kana, katakana, latch, lever, lock, lodge, logogram, logograph, miter, mortise, nail, ogham, pack, peg, phonetic, phonetic symbol, pictogram, pictograph, pin, plant, print, prize, pry, rabbet, radical, rivet, root, rune, scarf, screw, seat, set, set in, settle, sew, shorthand, skewer, snap, stamp, staple, stereotype, stick, stitch, tack, toggle, word letter, zipper
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