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wedge
[ wej ]
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.
- Chiefly Coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island. a hero sandwich.
- a wedge heel or shoe with such a heel.
verb (used with object)
- 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)
- to force a way like a wedge (usually followed by in, into, through, etc.):
The box won't wedge into such a narrow space.
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
- slang.a bribe
- thin end of the wedgethin 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
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Derived Forms
- ˈwedgy, adjective
- ˈwedgeˌlike, adjective
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Other Words From
- wedgelike adjective
- un·wedge verb (used with object) unwedged unwedging
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Word History and Origins
Origin of wedge1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of wedge1
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Idioms and Phrases
see thin edge of the wedge .Discover More
Example Sentences
They think they’re going to win eventually, and they just need to slowly drive a wedge in there.
Rather, deep rock pushing toward Earth’s surface may be driving a wedge between the plates that helps separate them, researchers report online January 27 in Nature.
Like the wedge of cheese it is, Firefly Lane goes down easy with a glass of wine.
Anti-snore pillows often come in the shape of a wedge, but you can also find smaller pillows to use as a level or an insert along with your current pillow.
Almost anyone with an agenda and some know-how can shove a wedge of doubt between citizens and consequential facts, whether they be election results, climate science or ways to avoid life-threatening illness.
The execution of two police officers in cold blood has shocked the city and driven a deeper wedge between the cops and the mayor.
A decade ago, gays were a wedge issue used by Republicans to energize the base.
In recent years there have been many issues driving a wedge between Riyadh and Washington.
Bevin, along with state and national Democrats, delight in trying to drive a wedge between McConnell and Paul.
Police squadrons had to form a “flying wedge” to break through the crowd to rescue blacks besieged in the park.
The individual prisms are usually slender, with one beveled, wedge-like end, but are sometimes needle-like.
I dont think much of this jam pie, complained Chet, holding up a wedge that he had taken from his sisters basket.
It should be fixed in the head by means of a thin, barbed iron wedge.
With the wedge Rose pried a floor-board out of its place, and made an opening large enough to let himself through.
The gate was already opening, a wedge of the painted warriors heading through, flame-throwers ready.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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