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. [1913
Webster]
(Geom.) A solid of five sides, having a
rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in
an edge, and two triangular ends. [1913 Webster]
A mass of metal, especially when of a wedgelike
form. "Wedges of gold." --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Anything in the form of a wedge, as a body of
troops drawn up in such a form. [1913 Webster] In warlike muster
they appear, In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings.
--Milton. [1913 Webster]
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
[Cant, Cambridge Univ., Eng.] --C. A. Bristed.
[1913 Webster]
(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. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
To force or drive as a wedge is driven. [1913
Webster] Among the crowd in the abbey where a finger Could not be
wedged in more. --Shak. [1913 Webster] He 's just the sort of man
to wedge himself into a snug berth. --Mrs. J. H. Ewing. [1913
Webster]
To force by crowding and pushing as a wedge does;
as, to wedge one's way. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
To press closely; to fix, or make fast, in the
manner of a wedge that is driven into something. [1913 Webster]
Wedged in the rocky shoals, and sticking fast. --Dryden. [1913
Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
(Pottery) To cut, as clay, into wedgelike masses,
and work by dashing together, in order to expel air bubbles, etc.
--Tomlinson. [1913 Webster]
Word Net
wedgeNoun
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]
Moby Thesaurus
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, zipperEnglish
Pronunciation
-
- Rhymes: -ɛdʒ
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 (Wikipedia
article).
- Stick a wedge under the door, will you, it keeps blowing shut.
- A piece (of food etc.) having this shape.
- Can you cut me a wedge of cheese?
- A flank of cavalry acting to split some portion of an opposing army, charging in an inverted V formation.
- A type of iron club used for short, high trajectories.
- Wedge-heeled shoes.
- In the context of "colloquial|UK": A quantity of money.
- I made a big fat wedge from that job.
- A group of geese or swans when they are in flight in a V formation.
Synonyms
- group of geese: skein
Translations
One of the simple machines
- Chinese: 劈 (pǐ), 楔 (xiē), 楔形 (xiē xíng)
- Czech: klín
- Danish: kile
- Dutch: wig, spie
- Finnish: kiila
- French: coin (for splitting something), cale (for stopping something from moving)
- German: Keil, Weck
- Hungarian: ék
- Italian: cuneo
- Japanese: 楔 (くさび, kusabi)
- Korean: 쐐기 (sswaegi)
- Latin: cuneus
- Lithuanian: vagis
- Middle English: wegge
- Old English: wecg
- Old High German: weggi
- Old Norse: veggr
- Polish: klin
- Portuguese: cunha
- Russian: клин
- Spanish: cuña
- Swedish: kil
piece of food etc.
- French: part, morceau
golf club
- French: cale
flank of cavalry
- Swedish: kil
Verb
Translations
- Italian: incuneare (1,2)
seealso The Wedge
The term wedge can refer to any of the following
things:
Concrete objects:
- Wedge (mechanical device), a simple machine used to separate two objects, or portions of objects, through the application of force
- Wedge (golf), a specialized type of club used at short ranges
- Potato wedges, large chunks of often unpeeled fried potatoes
- A name for a submarine sandwich in Westchester and Putnam Counties, New York, USA & Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA
- A range of sports cars from British manufacturers TVR
Natural phenomena:
- Wedge tornado, a tornado similar in shape to the mechanical device
- A form of cold air damming, a weather phenomenon
- Wedge pressure, the blood pressure measured in a pulmonary artery
Abstract concepts:
- Wedge (geometry), a polyhedral solid defined by two triangles and three trapezoid faces
- Wedge product, a mathematical term related to the exterior algebra (or the Grassmann algebra) of a vector
- Wedge sum, in mathematics, a "one-point union" of a family of topological spaces
- Wedge issue, in politics, a divisive issue used to split the support base of an opposing political group
- Wedge strategy, a Creationist political action plan
- In phonetics, a name for the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol, ʌ, representing the open-mid back unrounded vowel
- Stabilization Wedge Game, in climatology, a concept developed to demonstrate that global warming is a problem which can be solved by implementing today's technologies to reduce CO2 emissions
Organisations:
- Wedge Card, a social enterprise started by the founder of The Big Issue, John Bird, to promote local business, shops and communities.
- Wedge Community Co-op, a cooperative grocery in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.
- Wedge Records, a record label
People and characters:
- Wedge (Transformers), an Autobot, leader of the Build Team in the "Transformers: Robots in Disguise" toy line
- A poker champion
- Wedge Antilles, a fictional character in the Star Wars films.
- A recurring character in the Final Fantasy video game series: see Biggs and Wedge
wedge in Danish: Kile
wedge in German: Wedge
wedge in Spanish: Cuña
wedge in French: Wedge
wedge in Italian: Cuneo (disambigua)
wedge in Dutch: Wig
wedge in Polish: Klin (ujednoznacznienie)
wedge in Russian: Клин
wedge in Simple English: Wedge
wedge in Swedish: Lista över
golftermer#Wedge