Nearby Words

wedges

[wej] Origin

wedge

[wej] noun, verb, wedged, wedg·ing.
noun
1.
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).
2.
a piece of anything of like shape: a wedge of pie.
3.
a cuneiform character or stroke of this shape.
4.
Meteorology. (formerly) an elongated area of relatively high pressure.
5.
something that serves to part, split, divide, etc.: The quarrel drove a wedge into the party organization.
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6.
Military. (formerly) a tactical formation generally in the form of a V with the point toward the enemy.
7.
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.
8.
10.
Chiefly Coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island. a hero sandwich.
11.
a wedge heel or shoe with such a heel.
COLLAPSE
verb (used with object)
12.
to separate or split with or as if with a wedge (often followed by open, apart, etc.): to wedge open a log.
13.
to insert or fix with a wedge.
14.
to pack or fix tightly: to wedge clothes into a suitcase.
15.
to thrust, drive, fix, etc., like a wedge: He wedged himself through the narrow opening.
16.
Ceramics. to pound (clay) in order to remove air bubbles.
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17.
to fell or direct the fall of (a tree) by driving wedges into the cut made by the saw.
COLLAPSE

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Wedges is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
verb (used without object)
18.
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:
before 900; Middle English wegge (noun), Old English wecg; cognate with dialectal German Weck (Old High German wecki), Old Norse veggr

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


14. cram, jam, stuff, crowd, squeeze.


10. See hero sandwich.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

wedge
O.E. wecg "a wedge," from P.Gmc. *wagjaz (cf. O.N. veggr, M.Du. wegge, Du. wig, O.H.G. weggi "wedge," Ger. Weck "wedge-shaped bread roll"), of unknown origin. The verb is recorded from 1440. Wedgie in the underwear prank sense is attested by 1970s. Wedge issue is attested from 1999.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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