wedge
Pluralwedges
Pluralwedges
- 1A piece of food, metal, wood, or other material shaped thick at one edge and tapering to a thin one.
The salad came with a wedge of iceberg lettuce under blue cheese dressing.
Serve the pie in thin wedges with a scoop of ice cream.
UsageUsually a wedge of something (a wedge of lime), or you cut something into wedges.
- 2To force someone or something into a narrow space, or to pack people or things tightly together.
Latecomers tried to wedge into the packed hall through a side door.
He had wedged a folded note between the pages of her book.
UsageUsually with a place phrase: wedge something into, between or behind; often passive: wedged between two people.
- 3A simple machine: a piece of wood, metal, or other material that tapers from a thick edge to a thin one, driven into a narrow gap to split, tighten, secure, or lever.
The logger drove a steel wedge into the cut to keep the saw from binding.
The carpenter tapped thin wedges under the cabinet until it sat level.
UsageYou drive a wedge into a gap, or put one under a door to hold it open.
Note
Old English already had the word as weċġ, and this is the sense most of the family grows from: the V shapes, the splitting and the squeezing into gaps all start here. It is as much a household object as a physics term: a wedge under the door holds it open, and a steel wedge in a saw cut keeps the blade from binding.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Wedge descends from Old English weċġ; the physical wedge underlies the related shape, splitting and squeezing senses, grouped under the same etymology. en.wiktionary.org
- A wedge can hold a door open. en.wikipedia.org
- A steel wedge inserted in a saw cut can prevent binding. fs.usda.gov
- 4Something that causes a division, gap, or distance between people or things.
Rising rents have driven a wedge between the city and the towns around it.
Strategists hoped the tax question would act as a wedge between voters and their union leaders.
UsageUsually drive a wedge between two people or groups; in politics, a wedge issue splits a group.
Note
The image is of the splitting tool driven into a crack, and the usual verb is drive: rising rents drive a wedge between a city and its towns. Between names the two sides being pushed apart, and in politics a question chosen to split one group from another can act as a wedge in just this way.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- The physical image is a splitting tool forcing material apart. en.wikipedia.org
- A political issue can be used deliberately to divide a group. en.wikipedia.org
- 5One of a pair of shoes with a wedge heel.
Wedges are easier to walk in on grass than stilettos are.
The left wedge had a broken strap, so she wore sneakers instead.
UsageUsually plural, like other shoes: wear wedges, a pair of wedges.
- 6In golf, an iron club designed for short shots that rise steeply.
From eighty yards out, she took a wedge and dropped the ball a few feet from the pin.
He practiced with his wedges for an hour before the round.
Note
Golfers carry wedges in the plural, named for their jobs: the pitching wedge for approach shots, the sand wedge for escaping bunkers. They are the most steeply lofted of the irons, so the face sends the ball up quickly and helps it stop soon after landing.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts
- Golfers commonly carry multiple wedges. en.wikipedia.org
- Pitching wedges are used for approach shots. en.wikipedia.org
- Sand wedges are designed for escaping bunkers. en.wikipedia.org
- Wedges have the highest lofts among irons. en.wikipedia.org
- Wedge loft promotes a higher launch. prd-sfcc.callawaygolf.com
- Wedge shots are designed to reduce the ball's roll after landing. en.wikipedia.org
- 7To use a wedge on something: to hold it in place, force it into position, or split it apart.
She wedged the back door open with a brick to let the breeze through.
Movers wedge the wheels of the piano so it cannot roll in the truck.
UsageOpen or shut can go before or after the object: wedge the door open; with names the tool.
Less common meanings
- 8
- 9In geometry, a five-faced solid with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal faces meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.
The exam asked students to find the surface area of a wedge from its measurements.
Seen from one end, each of the wedges in the model shows a triangular face.
Note
Geometry's wedge is a near relative of the triangular prism. When its two sloping faces are trapezoids, the top edge differs in length from the base; when they are rectangles and the edge matches the base, the solid is simply a triangular prism lying on one face.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- A triangular prism is a special case of a wedge. en.wikipedia.org
- In the wedge with nonrectangular trapezoidal sloping faces, the top edge and the corresponding base edges differ in length. mathworld.wolfram.com
- With rectangular sloping faces and a matching top edge, the wedge is a triangular prism resting on a rectangular face. en.wikipedia.org
- 10To work wet clay by cutting or kneading it, so that it becomes uniform and loses its air bubbles.
Potters wedge reclaimed clay thoroughly, since a trapped air pocket can crack a pot in the kiln.
He wedged the two batches together until the color was even.
Similarknead
- 11A flock of geese, swans, or other birds flying in a V formation.
A wedge of geese passed low over the marsh, honking as it went.
Birdwatchers counted three wedges of swans crossing the estuary at dusk.
UsageFollowed by of and the birds: a wedge of geese, a wedge of swans.
Similarskein
Note
It is a collective noun that depends on the moment: geese or swans make a wedge only while they are in the air in a V, and the same birds resting on the water are no longer one.
- 12A sum of money.
My cousin made a tidy wedge selling old trainers online.
That flat must have cost him serious wedge, mate.
UsageWorks with or without a: a tidy wedge, serious wedge.
Similarpacket, bundle, dosh, wad
Note
Casual British speech uses it for cash, often plenty of it: a big fat wedge, some decent wedge, serious wedge.
- 13A sandwich made on a long, round roll, the same as a hero or submarine sandwich.
The pizzeria on the corner makes an Italian wedge with salami, ham, and provolone.
Every Friday the office orders wedges from the deli down the street.
UsageNamed by its filling: a meatball wedge. Most Americans call it a sub, hero or hoagie.
Similarsub, hoagie, hero, grinder
Note
Around Westchester, New York, the long sandwich is a wedge, where other Americans order a hoagie or a sub, and locals can be surprised that anyone finds the name funny.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Westchester, New York, is an area where the sandwich is called a wedge. en.wikipedia.org
- 14Of a computer program or system, to become stuck in a state where it no longer responds.
The build server wedged overnight, and nobody could log in until it was rebooted.
A driver that leaks memory can make the whole system wedge within hours.
UsageOften as an adjective: the server is wedged.
Note
Programmers use it for a hang the system cannot clear by itself: a wedged machine stays stuck until someone intervenes, perhaps by killing the process or rebooting it.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A wedged program or system is stuck and cannot proceed without help. tuhs.org
- 15A V-shaped symbol or mark pointing in any direction, such as the háček (ˇ), the logical 'and' sign (∧), the phonetic symbol ʌ, or a musical crescendo sign.
The scroll buttons on the remote are each marked with a small wedge, one pointing up and one pointing down.
In the formula, the wedge joins the two propositions, so the whole statement is true only if both parts are.
Note
A shape-word that several fields use for their own marks: the háček, the phonetic ʌ, the logical "and" sign and the musical hairpin. Outside those fields it names any V-shaped mark by its outline alone, so the direction is spelled out when it matters: a wedge pointing up, a downward wedge. The picture comes from the tool itself, which tapers to an edge in the outline every one of these marks shares.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- A physical wedge tapers to a thin edge. en.wikisource.org
- 16A body of troops or military vehicles arranged in a V shape with its point toward the enemy, once used by cavalry to break a line and still used by armored and infantry units.
At dawn the knights formed a wedge and drove into the center of the enemy line.
The cavalry wedge split the infantry, and the left flank broke in panic.
Note
The word names the horsemen themselves, not just the shape they ride in, much as a wedge of geese is the birds. Knights form a wedge and drive it into a line, doing the job of the splitting tool at a gallop. The formation is ancient, but modern armies still use it, especially for tanks and other armored vehicles.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Medieval cavalry, including knights, used wedge formations in battle. en.wikipedia.org
- The wedge formation was used in antiquity. en.wikipedia.org
- Modern armies still use wedge formations, especially for tanks and other armored vehicles. en.wikipedia.org
- 17An ingot: a block of metal cast in a mold.
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, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First PartNote
A cast block of gold could once be called a wedge: in Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great, written about 1587, golden wedges are laid out so that their reflections may amaze the Persians.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Wedge historically meant an ingot, including a cast block of gold. en.wiktionary.org
- Christopher Marlowe wrote Tamburlaine the Great. gutenberg.org
- The approximate composition date is 1587. This is explicitly a writing date; the first publication was in 1590. en.wikipedia.org
- In the play, Tamburlaine orders golden wedges displayed so their reflections may amaze the Persians. gutenberg.org
- 18Silver, or articles made of silver, considered collectively.
Note
Old slang widened the "ingot" meaning into silver of any kind, so a haul of plate or spoons was all wedge.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The slang silver sense developed from the ingot sense. gutenberg.org
- Wedge could collectively denote silver articles, including plate or silver spoons. en.wiktionary.org
- 19A wedge tornado, one whose funnel is so broad that it looks like a wedge rather than a rope or cone.
- 20A market trend in which the range of prices narrows while prices rise overall (a rising wedge) or fall (a falling wedge).
- 21A small triangular mark forming a basic element of cuneiform writing, produced by pressing the corner of a reed stylus into a surface.
- 22An elongated region of high atmospheric pressure lying between two areas of low pressure; a barometric ridge.
- 23A voussoir: one of the tapered blocks that together form an arch or vault.
- 24At Cambridge University from 1824 to the early 1880s, a joke name for the student placed last on the honors list of the Classical Tripos, also called the wooden wedge.
The last man is called the Wedge, corresponding to the Spoon in Mathematics.
1873, Charles Astor Bristed, Five Years in an English University
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of wedge apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origin
Proto-Germanic *wagjaz gave Proto-West Germanic *wagi, which became Old English weċġ and then Middle English wegge, both meaning "wedge."
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Proto-West Germanic *wagi derives from Proto-Germanic *wagjaz. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English weċġ derives from Proto-West Germanic *wagi. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English wegge derives from Old English weċġ. en.wiktionary.org
- Old English weċġ and Middle English wegge both meant “wedge.” en.wiktionary.org