wedging

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of wedge.

   The movers were wedging blankets between the boxes to keep them from sliding.

   Wedging a folded towel under the door kept the cold air out.

   Note

   The verb drops its silent e before -ing, as hedging and judging do. Most uses take an object and a place, as in wedging blankets between boxes or wedging a door open, but the colloquial computing sense stands alone: an app that keeps wedging has frozen and stopped responding.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The process of supporting something or holding it securely in place with a wedge.

   Careful wedging of the wheels kept the parked trailer from rolling down the slope.

   The crew finished the wedging of the piano before they closed the truck.

   Similarbracing

3. 3
   noununcountable

   In construction, a method of joining pieces of timber together.

   The timber frame relies on wedging rather than metal fasteners at its main joints.

   The restorers replaced the rotten pegs but kept the original wedging in the roof beams.

   Note

   Timber framers use the word for joints held by wooden wedges rather than nails or metal fasteners. In a typical wedged joint a tenon passes through a mortise and a wedge driven into its end spreads it, so it cannot pull back out. The same method holds old barn frames and fine furniture together.

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