wedge

plural wedges

1. countableuncountableOne 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.

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

      Can you cut me a wedge of cheese?

      1 more example

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

   2. countableuncountablegeometryA five-sided polyhedron with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.
   3. countableuncountablearchitectureA voussoir, one of the wedge-shaped blocks forming an arch or vault.
2. countablefigurativelyuncountableSomething that creates a division, gap or distance between things.

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

   2 more examples

   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.

   2013 September 28, Kenan Malik, “London Is Special, but Not That Special”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 Sep 2013

   Synonyms: wedge issue, salami tactics, culture war

   1. countablefigurativelyuncountablegolfA type of iron club used for short, high trajectories; a shot made with such a club.

      Synonyms: wedge issue, salami tactics, culture war

   2. countablefigurativelyuncountableOne 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.

      2010, Sue Limb, Girls, Guilty But Somehow Glorious

      Synonyms: wedge issue, salami tactics, culture war

3. Any symbol shaped like a V in some given orientation.
   1. UScountableuncountablemediaA háček.

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

      1982, Thomas Pyles, John Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language, 3rd edition, page 49

      2 more examples

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

      1996, Geoffrey Keith Pullum, William A. Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide, 2nd edition, page xxvi

      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.

      1999, Florian Coulmas, “háček”, in The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems, page 193

   2. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe 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).

      1996, Geoffrey Keith Pullum, William A. Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide, 2nd edition, page 19

   3. countableuncountablemathematicsThe symbol ∧, denoting a meet (infimum) operation or logical conjunction.
   4. countableuncountableentertainmentA hairpin, an elongated horizontal V-shaped sign indicating a crescendo or decrescendo.
   5. countableuncountableOne of the basic elements that make up cuneiform writing, a single triangular impression made with the corner of a reed stylus.
4. countableobsoleteuncountableAn ingot.

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

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii

   1. broadlyobsoleteslanguncountableSilver or items made of silver collectively.
   2. UKbroadlycolloquialcountableobsoleteuncountableA quantity of money.

      He's got some decent wedge.

      1 more example

      I made a big fat wedge from that job.

5. Things shaped like a V
   1. archaiccountableuncountableA flank of cavalry acting to split some portion of an opposing army, charging in an inverted V formation.
   2. collectivecountableuncountablebiologyA 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.

      1924, George Marsh, The Valley of Voices, Hodder and Stoughton, page 351

      2 more examples

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

      1991, William F. Nolan, “Dark Bedfellows: The Horrors in My Life”, in Weird Tales 302, number Fall 1991, page 14

      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.

      1903, Austin Hobart Clark, Notes on the Habits of Certain Venezuelan Birds, page 292

      Synonyms: chevron, skein

   3. countableuncountableclimatologyA wedge tornado.
6. Phenomena that, when charted, result in a V shape
   1. countableuncountableclimatologyA barometric ridge; an elongated region of high atmospheric pressure between two low-pressure areas.
   2. countableuncountablebusinessA 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).
7. New YorkUScountableregionaluncountableespecially WestchesterA sandwich made on a long, cylindrical roll.

   I ordered a chicken parm wedge from the deli.

   2 more examples

   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.

   1983, Marlene Fanta Shyer, Adorable Sunday, Scholastic

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

   2019 October 10, Mark Lungariello, “It's called a wedge in Westchester: Not a hoagie, sub or a grinder”, in The Journal News

   Synonyms: hero sandwich, more at submarine sandwich

present singular third person wedges · participle present wedging · participle past wedged · past wedged

1. transitiveTo support or secure using a wedge.

   I wedged open the window with a screwdriver.

   1 more example

   "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.

   1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC

   Synonyms: scotch

2. ambitransitiveTo force into a narrow gap.

   I wedged into the alcove and listened carefully.

   2 more examples

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

   During [Tucker] Carlson’s keynote, he wedged sneers at his critics for crying “racist!” in between racist remarks about [Ilhan] Omar, jeremiads against the media (“I know there’s a bunch of reporters here, so . . . screw you”), and an attack on Elizabeth Warren and her donors (“She’s a tragedy, because she’s now obsessed with racism, which is why the finance world supports her”)—all to gleeful applause.

   2019 July 24, David Austin Walsh, “Flirting With Fascism”, in Jewish Currents

3. transitiveTo pack (people or animals) together tightly into a mass.
4. transitiveceramicsTo work wet clay by cutting or kneading for the purpose of homogenizing the mass and expelling air bubbles.
5. informalintransitivecomputingOf a computer program or system: to get stuck in an unresponsive state.

   My Linux kernel wedged after I installed the latest update.

6. transitiveTo cleave with a wedge.
7. transitiveTo force or drive with a wedge.
8. transitiveTo shape into a wedge.

plural wedges

1. UKCambridge University slangThe 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.

   1873, Charles Astor Bristed, Five Years in an English University

   Synonyms: wooden wedge

plural Wedges

1. A surname.