wedge

noun

1. 1

   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.

   Stick a wedge under the door, will you? It keeps blowing shut.

2. 2

   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. A piece (of food, metal, wood etc.) having this shape.

   Can you cut me a wedge of cheese?

   We ordered a box of baked potato wedges with our pizza, and an iceberg wedge as our side salad.

3. 3

   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. A five-sided polyhedron with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.

4. 4

   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. A voussoir, one of the wedge-shaped blocks forming an arch or vault.

5. 5

   figurativeSomething that creates a division, gap or distance between things.

   Near-synonyms: wedge issue, salami tactics, culture wars

   drive a wedge between [persons, peoples, camps, allies, etc.]

   It is one of the ironies of capital cities that each acts as a symbol of its nation, and yet few are even remotely representative of it. London has always set itself apart from the rest of Britain — but political, economic and social trends are conspiring to drive that wedge deeper.

6. 6

   figurativeSomething that creates a division, gap or distance between things. A type of iron club used for short, high trajectories; a shot made with such a club.

7. 7

   figurativeSomething that creates a division, gap or distance between things. One of a pair of wedge-heeled shoes, which lift the heel of the foot from the ground.

   She was wearing wedges, and I have a horrible suspicion they were her mum's wedges left over from the last century.

8. 8

   Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation. A háček.

   The wedge is used in Czech and is illustrated by the Czech name for the diacritic, haček.

   The tilde and the circumflex have a place in the ASCII scheme but the wedge and the umlaut do not.

   The háček or ‘wedge’ ⟨ˇ⟩ is a diacritic commonly used in Slavic orthographies. […] As a tone mark the wedge is used iconically for a falling-rising tone as in Chinese Pinyin.

9. 9

   Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation. The IPA character ʌ, which denotes an open-mid back unrounded vowel.

   Turned V is referred to as “Wedge” by some phoneticians, but this seems inadvisable to us, because the haček accent (ˇ) is also called that in names like Wedge C for (č).

10. 10

    Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation. The symbol ∧, denoting a meet (infimum) operation or logical conjunction.

11. 11

    Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation. A hairpin, an elongated horizontal V-shaped sign indicating a crescendo or decrescendo.

12. 12

    Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation. One of the basic elements that make up cuneiform writing, a single triangular impression made with the corner of a reed stylus.

13. 13

    obsoleteAn ingot.

    Open the Males, yet guard the treaſure ſure. Lay out our golden wedges to the view, That their reflexions may amaze the Perſeans.

14. 14

    obsoleteAn ingot. Silver or items made of silver collectively.

15. 15

    obsoleteAn ingot. A quantity of money.

    He's got some decent wedge.

    I made a big fat wedge from that job.

16. 16

    archaicThings shaped like a V A flank of cavalry acting to split some portion of an opposing army, charging in an inverted V formation.

17. 17

    Things shaped like a V A group of cranes, ducks, geese, gulls, pelicans, swans or other birds when they are in flight in a V formation.

    The girl stopped short off and searched the sky for a wedge of geese.

    A screaming wedge of birds wheeled above me, then winged off across the darkening water

    One day while on the sandy plain near the coast, my attention was attracted by a flock of about twenty very large birds, in the form of a wedge flying in the direction of the lagoon which separates the two parts of the island.

18. 18

    Things shaped like a V A wedge tornado.

19. 19

    Phenomena that, when charted, result in a V shape A barometric ridge; an elongated region of high atmospheric pressure between two low-pressure areas.

20. 20

    Phenomena that, when charted, result in a V shape A market trend characterized by a contracting range in prices coupled with an upward trend in prices (a rising wedge) or a downward trend in prices (a falling wedge).

21. 21

    A sandwich made on a long, cylindrical roll.

    I ordered a chicken parm wedge from the deli.

    She hoped it wasn't a meatball wedge, because there's so much garlic in school meatballs that it might make my breath smell and knock the agent out of his chair.

    Most people realize there are a lot of different names for that type of sandwich, so Scalone wondered what was so funny about wedge?

verb

1. 1

   To support or secure using a wedge.

   I wedged open the window with a screwdriver.

   "Did he take his bottle well?" Mrs. Flanders whispered, and Rebecca nodded and went to the cot and turned down the quilt, and Mrs. Flanders bent over and looked anxiously at the baby, asleep, but frowning. The window shook, and Rebecca stole like a cat and wedged it.

2. 2

   To force into a narrow gap.

   He had wedged the package between the wall and the back of the sofa.

   I wedged into the alcove and listened carefully.

3. 3

   To pack (people or animals) together tightly into a mass.

4. 4

   To work wet clay by cutting or kneading for the purpose of homogenizing the mass and expelling air bubbles.

5. 5

   informalOf a computer program or system: to get stuck in an unresponsive state.

   My Linux kernel wedged after I installed the latest update.

6. 6

   To cleave with a wedge.

7. 7

   To force or drive with a wedge.

8. 8

   To shape into a wedge.

noun

1. 1

   The person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos.

   The last man is called the Wedge, corresponding to the Spoon in Mathematics.

Forms

plural

wedges

past tense

wedged

past participle

wedged

present participle

wedging

third person singular

wedges