# wedge

Pronunciation: say "WEJ" /wɛd͡ʒ/

## Noun

1. A piece of food, metal, wood, or other material shaped thick at one edge and tapering to a thin one.
   - Simple: A piece of food, wood, or metal that is thick at one end and thin at the other.
   - _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._
3. A 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.
   - Simple: A block of wood or metal, thick at one end and thin at the other, used to split or hold things.
   - _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._
4. Something that causes a division, gap, or distance between people or things.
   - Simple: Something that pushes people or things apart.
   - _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._
5. One of a pair of shoes with a wedge heel.
   - Simple: One of a pair of shoes with a wedge-shaped heel.
   - _Wedges are easier to walk in on grass than stilettos are._
   - _The left wedge had a broken strap, so she wore sneakers instead._
6. In golf, an iron club designed for short shots that rise steeply.
   - Simple: In golf, a club used to hit the ball high and a short distance.
   - _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._
9. In geometry, a five-faced solid with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal faces meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.
   - Simple: In math, a solid shape with five flat sides, including a rectangle base and two triangle 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._
11. A flock of geese, swans, or other birds flying in a V formation.
   - Simple: A group of birds, like geese, flying in the shape of a V.
   - _A wedge of geese passed low over the marsh, honking as it went._
   - _Birdwatchers counted three wedges of swans crossing the estuary at dusk._
12. A sum of money. *(colloquial, British)*
   - Simple: An amount of money, often a lot of it.
   - _My cousin made a tidy wedge selling old trainers online._
   - _That flat must have cost him serious wedge, mate._
13. A sandwich made on a long, round roll, the same as a hero or submarine sandwich. *(dialectal, US)*
   - Simple: A big sandwich made on a long roll.
   - _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._
15. A 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.
   - Simple: A mark shaped like a V, used as a sign in writing, math, sounds, or music.
   - _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._
16. A 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.
   - Simple: A group of soldiers or military vehicles moving in a V shape, with the point facing the enemy.
   - _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._

## Verb

2. To force someone or something into a narrow space, or to pack people or things tightly together.
   - Simple: To push or squeeze someone or something into a tight space.
   - _Latecomers tried to wedge into the packed hall through a side door._
   - _He had wedged a folded note between the pages of her book._
7. To use a wedge on something: to hold it in place, force it into position, or split it apart.
   - Simple: To use a wedge to hold something in place, push it, or split it.
   - _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._
8. To shape something into a wedge.
   - Simple: To give something the shape of a wedge.
10. To work wet clay by cutting or kneading it, so that it becomes uniform and loses its air bubbles.
   - Simple: To knead or cut wet clay so it is the same all through and has no 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._
14. Of a computer program or system, to become stuck in a state where it no longer responds. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Of a computer or program, to get stuck and stop responding.
   - _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._

## Noun

17. An ingot: a block of metal cast in a mold. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A bar or block of metal, such as gold, made by pouring it into a mold.
18. Silver, or articles made of silver, considered collectively. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Silver, or all the things made of silver, taken together.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A wedge tornado, one whose funnel is so broad that it looks like a wedge rather than a rope or cone.
- (noun) A market trend in which the range of prices narrows while prices rise overall (a rising wedge) or fall (a falling wedge).
- (noun) A small triangular mark forming a basic element of cuneiform writing, produced by pressing the corner of a reed stylus into a surface.
- (noun) An elongated region of high atmospheric pressure lying between two areas of low pressure; a barometric ridge.
- (noun) A voussoir: one of the tapered blocks that together form an arch or vault.
- (noun) At 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.

## Origin

Proto-Germanic *wagjaz gave Proto-West Germanic *wagi, which became Old English weċġ and then Middle English wegge, both meaning "wedge."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/wedge (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).