▪ I. wedge, n.
(wɛdʒ)
Forms: 1 waecg, wecg, wegge, (4 weeg), 4–7 wegge, (5 vegge, weegge, wegghe), 5–6 weg(e, 5–7 wagge, 6 wadge, wegg, 7 wedg, 3– wedge. Pl. 6 wedgies, Sc. vagis, wagis.
[Com. Teut. (not found in Gothic): OE. węcg masc. corresponds to OS. weggi wedge (MLG. wegge, wigge, LG. wegge wedge, wedge-shaped cake), MDu. wegge, wigge (mod.Du. wegge fem., wedge-shaped cake, wig fem., wedge), OHG. weggi, wecki, wedge (MHG. wegge, wecke, wedge, wedge-shaped cake; mod.G. dial. weck, wecken masc., wedge, wedge-shaped cake), ON. vegg-r wedge (Norw. vegg, Da. vægge, MSw. vägge, vigge, Sw. vigg, vigge):—OTeut. *waᵹjo-z.
The affinities of the word are somewhat uncertain. Some scholars regard it as cognate with OHG. waganso (see wagense in Grimm D. Wb.), ON., Norw. vangne, Gr. ὀϕνίς (Hesychius) ploughshare, OPrussian wagni-s coulter, Lith. vágis pin, plug, f. Indogermanic root *wogh{supw}- (Teut. *waᵹ-); cf. Skr. vāh- ? to force.
The LG. and Du. form with i for e (whence perh. the Sw. form and the Eng. wig n.1, a kind of cake) is not easy to account for. It may be due to a special sound-change in some local dialect; the hypothesis that it represents an ablaut-variant (OTeut. *weᵹjo-z) is inadmissible.]
1. a. A piece of wood, metal, or other hard material, thick at one end and tapering to a thin edge at the other; chiefly used as a tool operated by percussion (or, less frequently, pressure) applied to the thick end, for splitting wood, stone, etc., forcing apart contiguous objects, dilating a fissure or cavity, tightening or securing some part of a structure, raising a heavy body, and other similar purposes. Hence, in Mechanics, the type of simple machine of which the wedge proper is an example, and which includes also knives, chisels, and cutting and piercing instruments in general; formerly reckoned separately among the ‘mechanical powers’, but now regarded as a variety of the inclined plane.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) C 970 Cuneus, waecg. a 1050 Liber Scintill. xxvii. (1889) 103 Yfele treowes on oste yfel næᵹel oððe wecg on to fæstniᵹenne ys. a 1250 J. de Garlande in Wright Voc. (1857) 137 Et cum cuneis [glossed wedgys] et cavillis. 1357 in Pipe Roll 32 Edw. III m. 34/2 ij. Wegges ferri. c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. i. xiv. 4 Thorw wich pyn ther goth a litel wegge which þat is cleped the hors, þat streyneth alle thise parties to hepe. c 1440 York Myst. xxxv. 235 Goode wegges schall we take þis tyde, and feste þe foote [of the cross]. Ibid. 242 Gyffe me þis wegge, I schall it in dryue. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 81/2 Clyte, or clote, or vegge, cuneus. ? 1474 Stonor Papers (Camden) I. 147, j weegge of yron. 1523–34 Fitzherb. Husb. §3 The plough-fote is a lyttell pece of wodde, with a croked ende set before in a morteys in the ploughe-beame, sette fast with wedges, to dryue vppe and downe. 1542 Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 184 To..reforme and mend the artillery, and to mak carttis, boolis, vagis, and all vder necessaris belangand thairto. 1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 369 The marble stone..they breake and cleaue with wedgies of iren. 1569 Spenser Theat., Sonets v, I heard the tronke to grone vnder the wedge. 1613 in Trans. Exeter Dioc. Archit. Soc. Ser. ii. (1867) I. 395 For 5 peire of iron wegges to make faste the brasses, xij d. 1648 Wilkins Math. Magic i. viii. 52 The fift Mechanicall faculty is the Wedge, which is a known instrument, commonly used in the Cleaving of wood. 1697 Dryden æneis vii. 711 Tyrrheus..left his Wedge within the cloven Oak. 1711 Milit. & Sea Dict. ii. (ed. 4), Wedges are us'd to make fast the Mast in the Partners. They also put a Wedge into the Heels of the Top-Masts, to bear them upon the Tressel-Trees. 1728 Chambers Cycl., Wedge, Cuneus, in Mechanicks, the last of the five Powers or simple Machines... To the Wedge may be refer'd all Edge-Tools, and Instruments which have a sharp Point, in order to cut, cleave, slit, chop, pierce, bore, or the like; as Knives, Hatchets, Swords, Bodkins, &c. 1773 W. Emerson Princ. Mech. (ed. 3) 44 The sharper the wedge, or the more acute its angle, the easier it will divide any thing or overcome any resistance. 1784 Cowper Task v. 43 Forth goes the woodman..To wield the axe And drive the wedge in yonder forest drear. a 1790 W. Newton tr. Vitruvius x. xviii. (1791) 266 The distended ropes..are then confined at the holes with wedges, that they may not slip. 1842 Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Engin. II. 73 The wedges employed to secure the rails in the chairs are similarly compressed. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Wedge,..a small fastening for a door or window. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Wordbk., Setting-up, raising a ship from her blocks, shores, &c. by wedges driven between the heels of the shore and the dock foundation. 1888 W. E. Nicholson Gloss. Terms Coal Trade (E.D.D.), Wedge, a sharp or flat pointed iron or steel, used for splitting and breaking coal or stone. 1923 My Magazine Jan. 22 Wedge. A small piece of wood placed under the heel of a living model for support. It is seen in statues. |
b. Grafting. (
a) A peg to keep the cleft open. (
b) The tongue or tapered end of a scion or stock.
| 1523–34 Fitzherb. Husb. §136 Thou muste haue..a mallet, to dryue the knyfe and thy wedge in-to the tree. 1653 Austen Fruit-Trees 48 Being cloven with the knife, and a wedge of Box, or other hard wood knockt in, to keep it open, then prepare the Graft [etc.]. 1832 Planting 30 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, The upper division of the scion made by the slit, termed the tongue or wedge, is then inserted into the cleft of the stock. |
c. The movable slip of wood, tapered on one side, by means of which the blade of a carpenter's plane is adjusted and fastened in the stock.
| 1678 Moxon Mech. Exerc. iv. 64 This knocking on the Britch [of a plane] raises the Iron, so it also raises and loosens the wedge: therefore..whenever you knock upon the Britch, you must also knock upon the wedge, to fasten the Iron again. |
d. Arch. A voussoir.
| 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 73 b, The last wedge, which is called the key-stone, shou'd be cut according to the lines of the other wedges, but left a small matter bigger at the top, so that it may..drive the lower wedges closer together. a 1790 W. Newton tr. Vitruvius vi. xi. (1791) 147 In edifices which are built with piers and arches of wedges with the joints tending to their centers, the extreme piers are to be made of a greater breadth, that they may resist the force when the wedges, pressed by the weight of the walls, and impelling toward the center, thrust against the abutments. 1849 Freeman Archit. 20 We might conceive an arch whose voussoirs should be wedges, not of stone..but of wood. |
2. a. fig. and in
fig. context.
| 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 278 Take an other unvanquishable argument such as all y⊇ Heretiques wedges with all their Beatelles and malles cannot beat abroad. c 1620 A. Hume Brit. Tongue (1865) 13 Now I am cum to a knot that I have noe wedg to cleave. 1645 Fuller Good Th. in Bad Times ii. vi, The same wedge wil serve to cleave the former difficulty. 1704 F. Fuller Med. Gymn. (1711) 78, I hope these Reflections will not be misinterpreted..as a Wedge to make way for any Design of mine. 1841 J. C. Calhoun Sp. Wks. 1861 IV. 11 This bill is the entering wedge for all the measures of the session. 1857 G. A. Lawrence Guy Liv. xxvii. 267 Just as he had fixed on the astute question which was to drive the first wedge into the mystery, Guy turned..and met him full. 1909 G. A. T. Middleton Eng. Ch. Archit. i. 17 England became a wedge of paganism driven in as it were between the Christianity of the Continent..and the Christianity of Ireland. 1913 R. Lucas Ld. North xiv. II. 168 Shelburne..perceived that there was room for a wedge to be driven in between the French and the Americans. |
b. Phr.
the thin (little or small) end of the wedge, a small beginning which it is hoped or feared may lead to something greater. Also
attrib.| 1856 C. Fox Jrnl. 8 Nov. in Memories Old Friends (1882) xxii. 308 Beware, Englishmen, of the tendencies to hierarchy in your country when the thin end of the wedge is introduced: it will work its way on to all this. 1858 Trollope Dr. Thorne xxxi, (Chapter-heading) The Small End of the Wedge. Ibid., We have all heard of the little end of the wedge... That pill had been the little end of Lady Arabella's wedge. Up to that period she had been struggling in vain to make a severance between her husband and her enemy [the doctor]. 1867 Hansard Commons 27 June 615 The thin end of the wedge. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) II. x. 460 The rule [of Chrodegang] was but the small end of the wedge. 1884 Graphic 20 Dec. 639/3 Cremation advocates have managed to get in the thin end of the wedge in France. |
| attrib. 1896 Daily News 21 Feb. 5/1 How many reforms have the Tories resisted with the thin-end-of-the-wedge argument. |
3. a. An ingot of gold, silver, etc. ?
Obs. Presumably so called because the ordinary form of an ingot was that of a wedge;
cf. Heb. lāšōn,
lit. ‘tongue’, used in the same sense; but in the
Eng. use of the word there appears to be no evidence of any reference to shape. The
OE. wecg is in translations of
Matt. xvii. 27 used for ‘piece of money’ (rendering L.
stater).
| c 900 Bæda's Hist. i. i. (1890) 26 Berende on wecga orum ares & isernes, leades & seolfres. c 1000 ælfric Hom. I. 60 Hi behwyrfdon heora are..on sumum ᵹyldenum wecge, and ðone on sæ awurpan. c 1100 Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 141/34 Metallum, ælces kynnes wecg vel ora oððe clyna. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 49 Þei wilen not touche an halpeny or ferþing wiþ þe coyn..of the kyng,..a weeg of siluer or a cuppe of gold þei wolen handil faste. 1436 Libel Eng. Policy in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 171 Also Pruse mene make here aventure Of plate of sylvere, of wegges gode and sure In grete plente. c 1450 J. Capgrave St. Aug. (1910) 48 He..made þe vesseles of syluyr whech longed on-to þe cherch to be molten, and þe weggis þerof be sold and departed to por men. 1535 Coverdale Job xxviii. 16 No wedges of gold of Ophir. 1560 Bible (Geneva) Josh. vii. 21 Two hundreth shekels of siluer and a wedge of golde of fyftie shekels weight. [So 1611 (margin, Heb. tunge)]. 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 403/1 Aurum purum, infectum,..gold vnwrought, and in the wedge. 1613 [see ingot 1]. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 140 Fifty thousand Talents of vncoyned Gold, besides siluer wedges. 1694 Bragge Disc. Parables v. 194 'Tis like a child's slighting a wedge of gold, and rather pursuing an empty bubble because it shines and glitters. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 196, I found there..some small Bars or Wedges of Gold. |
b. Cant. Silver, whether money or plate.
| 1725 New Cant. Dict., Wedge, Plate, or Silver or Gold Moveables and Trinkets: Also Money. 1812 Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 209 A convenient fencing repository, from the lady's tyke to the nobleman's wedge. 1821 Life D. Haggart (ed. 2) 98, I had some wedge planked in a garret in North Leith... I was anxious to convert it into blunt. 1896 Westm. Gaz. 29 May 2/1 Between two and three I turns over a pawnbroker's shop, and gets safe away with a lot of wedge—that's silver plate. |
| attrib. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict. s.v. Wedge, A wedge-feeder, a silver-spoon. 1839 Ainsworth Jack Sheppard ii. xiv, A wedge-lobb, otherwise known as a silver snuff-box. |
4. A lump or cake of any solid substance.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. 146 b, The Creame..is..put into a vessell..wherin with often beating and moouing up and downe, they so shake the milke, as they seuer the thinnest part of from the thicke, which at the fyrst gather together in little crombles, and after with the continuance of the violent moouing commeth to a whole wedge, or cake [L. in massam cogatur]. 1728 E. S[mith] Compleat Housew. (ed. 2) 57 When you have churned, wash your Butter..and beat it well..; let it stand in a Wedge..till the next morning. 1833 H. Martineau Berkeley i. iv. 74 Different kinds of rude money..; skins in one country, shells in another, and wedges of salt in a third. |
5. transf. a. A formation of troops tapering to the front or van, in order to cleave a way through an opposing force. (
Orig. after L.
cuneus;
cf. wedge-battle in 10.) Now more widely of a body of people.
| 1614 Ralegh Hist. World iii. xii. §7. 152 Taking a choise Companie of the most able men, whom he cast into the forme of a Wedge, or Diamond. 1615 H. Peacham Relat. Affairs Cleve & Gulick C 2 b, The Horse..were showne in the field in order of fight: their manner was in forme of a Pile or wedge, called of the old Romans, Cuneus. 1674 Milton P.R. iii. 309 See how in warlike muster they appear, In Rhombs and wedges, and half moons, and wings. 1697 Dryden æneis xii. 842 One Soul inspiring all, Form'd in a Wedge, the Foot approach the Wall. 1802 C. James Milit. Dict. s.v. 1821 Shelley Hellas 377 Thrice their keen wedge of battle pierced our lines. 1887 Times (weekly ed.) 21 Oct. 2/1 A wedge of 15 or 18 policemen were endeavouring to be driven into that meeting. 1900 M. Hewlett Richard Yea-and-Nay ii. ix, The wedge held firm; red work for axe and swords while it lasted. 1913 J. H. Morrison On Trail Pioneers 1 Every entrance is blocked, and down every gangway a long wedge of standing people has been driven deep into the heart of the house. |
b. The
V-shaped formation adopted by a number of geese or other wildfowl when flying.
| [1725 Watts Logic ii. ii. §1 The wild Geese flew over the Thames in the Form of a Wedge.] 1869 Blackmore Lorna Doone xxix, So like half a wedge of wildfowl, to and fro we swept the field. 1889 Daily News 11 Jan. 5/3 There drifts over the moor a wedge of clangorous geese, making for the Channel. |
c. gen. Something in the form of a wedge; a wedge-shaped part or piece of anything.
| 1821 Shelley Adonais l, One keen pyramid with wedge sublime, Pavilioning the dust of him who planned This refuge for his memory. 1835 Dickens Sk. Boz, Making a Night of it, A pot of the real draught stout, and..cushions of bread, and wedges of cheese. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xii. 89 The glacier here..was cut up into thin wedges. 1889 H. Saunders Man. Brit. Birds 660 The three outer primaries are of a dusky-black which becomes paler towards the edges of the inner webs, though there is no grey ‘wedge’. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 430 It is better, instead of removing such a kidney, to treat each focus independently by scraping or by the excision of a wedge. |
d. A strip of land narrowing to a point.
| [1678 Phillips (ed. 4), Wedge, a Sand so called, being broad at the West end, and sharp at the East end, and lies on the North side of the Marget Sands.] 1867 Murchison Siluria xvii. (ed. 4) 412 The Coal-field..thins out..so much that to the west of Béthune it has merely become a narrow wedge. 1918 Blackw. Mag. June 771/2 The white wedge of Kildin Island is now on our port bow. |
e. In an organ (see
quot.).
| 1852 Seidel Organ 78 The wedge of the mouth..is the interval between the under lip and the language. |
f. Meteorol. A narrow wedge-shaped area of high pressure between two adjacent cyclonic systems; also the representation of this on a weather-chart.
| 1887 R. Abercromby Weather ii. 26 Between the two cyclones the isobar of 29·9 ins. projects upwards, like a wedge or an inverted letter V., but this time encloses high pressure; this shape of lines is called a ‘wedge’. |
g. The wedge-shaped stroke in cuneiform characters. Also
attrib.| 1821 Rich Babylon & P. (1839) 249 The wedges in the third [kind of inscription] cross each other. 1883 G. Evans Ess. Assyriol. 6 The kind of writing in the copies, with the wedge as its fundamental element, was to them perfectly new. |
| 1881 Tylor Anthrop. i. 11 Deciphered from the wedge-characters of Nineveh. 1915 Pinches in Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archæ ol. XXXVII. 90 We have a direct testimony to the practice outside the wedge-inscriptions. |
h. Short for
wedge-shell (see 10).
| 1815 S. Brookes Introd. Conchol. 157 Wedge, Donax. |
i. A v-shaped sign used in various musical and other notations (see
quots.).
| 1893 E. M. Thompson Handbk. Greek & Latin Palæogr. v. 68 The paragraph-mark was not..uniformly the horizontal stroke; the wedge >..and similar forms were employed. 1970 Language XLVI. 78 Wedges printed after vowel symbols, e.g. [a{nfcirc}a{supgt}aˇa{suplt}], indicate raising, backing, lowering, and fronting. 1980 Early Music July 401/1 The most fascinating [signs] are the wedges indicating crescendo, diminuendo and messa da voce on single long notes: {btril}, {btrir}, {blozenge}, and a passage with second-position fingerings. |
j. Golf. A golf club with a wedge-shaped head, used for lofting the ball at approach shots, or (
= sand wedge s.v. sand n.2 10 a) out of a bunker, etc. Also, a shot made with a wedge.
| [1924 J. White Easier Golf iv. 100 What I attempt to do is to use this heel [of a club]..as a wedge, and by driving this into the sand behind the ball I create sufficient disturbance to force the ball out of any lie.] 1937 [see sand wedge s.v. sand n.2 10 a]. 1952 Chambers's Jrnl. May 300/1 Basil walked moodily off the tee, and after five minutes' search found his ball embedded in a patch of the foulest rough on the course, hacked it out with his wedge, and, playing two odd to the green, lost the hole. 1961 Times 1 July 4/1 He..played an overcautious wedge at the Royal. 1975 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 12 Sept. 9/4 Putting is out; most golfers carry just a driver, a four-wood, mid-iron and wedge. |
k. A wedge heel; a wedge-soled shoe. See sense 9 b below.
colloq.| 1959 Chambers's 20th Cent. Dict. Add. 1965 R. Hardwick Plotters (1966) xi. 102 Stretch pants, wedges, and a leghorn hat. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 137 Wedge, a solid heel joined to the sole in one solid piece. 1976 Washington Post 19 Apr. a12/3 (Advt.), Casual style wedges in Oxford and slip-on styles. 1983 Times 14 July 11/3 Gladiator straps on stacked wooden wedge..{pstlg}44.50. |
l. A hair style in which the ends of the hair are slightly graduated so that they form a series of wedges.
orig. U.S.| 1976 Time 19 Apr. 69 There are many variations on the new wedge. Stylists at the Paul McGregor shops in New York and Los Angeles have shaped the back of the cut into three inverted pyramids. 1977 Daily News (Perth, Austral.) 19 Jan. 6/4 After she became a headliner, Dorothy's hairdo, called the wedge, sent girls rushing off to hairdressers to duplicate the look. 1985 Hair Summer 78 (caption), Short, sculptured sweeping version of the wedge has classy clout in the form of a pink flash. |
6. Geom. a. A triangular prism.
b. A simple solid formed by cutting a triangular prism by any two planes.
| 1710 J. Clarke tr. Rohault's Nat. Philos. (1729) I. 87 Let ABC represent a Wedge; and let CG be perpendicular to AB. 1829 Nat. Philos., Mech. ii. x. 43 (U.K.S.) A Wedge is a solid figure, which is called in geometry a triangular prism. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 24/2 The wedge being merely the frustum of a triangular prism, we have at once [etc.]. 1895 A. Lodge Mensuration 7 If from a triangular prism of indefinite length, a piece is cut off by two transverse planes which are not parallel, this piece is called a wedge. |
7. Her. A charge consisting of an isosceles triangle with a very acute angle at its vertex.
| 1716 S. Kent Gramm. Her., Proctor of Norfolk; He beareth Or, three Wedges Sable. 1780 Edmondson Her. II. Alph. Arms, Isam or Isham. Vert, three wedges ar. 1847 W. S. Evans Gramm. Her. 151 The Nail (sometimes called the Passion-nail)..must not be confounded with the Wedge, which is of course wider at the top, and in shape something like a pile. |
8. Cambridge University.
the (wooden) wedge: the student last in the classical tripos list.
This counterpart to the older ‘wooden spoon’ (see
wooden a.), designating the last man in the mathematical tripos, was suggested by the fact that in the first classical tripos (1824) the last man was Wedgwood of Christ's College, afterwards famous as an English etymologist.
| 1852 Bristed Five Yrs. Eng. Univ. (ed. 2) 253 Of the remainder, five were Wranglers, four of these Double men, and a fifth a favorite for the Wedge... The last man is called the Wedge, corresponding to the Spoon in Mathematics. |
9. a. Combinations, chiefly similative, as
wedge-blade,
wedge-block,
wedge-bolt,
wedge-fashion,
wedge-form,
wedge-head,
wedge-shape,
wedge-stone,
wedge-wad;
wedge-balancing,
wedge-billed,
wedge-sided adjs.| 1921 D. H. Lawrence Tortoises 19 Four rowing limbs, and one *wedge-balancing head. |
| 1836 E. Stanley Fam. Hist. Birds xiii. (1848) 289 Tribe 1. Cuneirostral (*Wedge-Billed). |
| 1917 D. H. Lawrence Look! We have come Through! 113 The fine, fine wind... Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a *wedge-blade inserted. |
| 1868 Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions of War 55 The breech is opened and closed by a *wedge-block worked by a hinged lever. |
| 1892 Greener Breech-Loader 22 A round steel *wedge-bolt. |
| 1665 J. Webb Stone-Heng 190 These [stones] also were either of a *Wedge fashion, or wedged under the Great One. |
| 1802 Playfair Illustr. Hutton. Theory 295 This *wedge-form of the whinstone masses. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 7 June 4/2 A disc on which black and white wedge-forms alternated. |
| 1880 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 343/1 These [bars of steel] are welded together by forging to *wedge-heads, tying together with wire [etc.]. |
| 1812 Sir J. Sinclair Syst. Husb. Scot. i. 43 The white thorn [hedge]..when properly trained, and occasionally cut over, or dressed in the *wedge-shape,..will last for ages. 1895 Hoffman Begin. Writing 141 The end of the stick would be sharpened into a wedge-shape. |
| 1852 Mechanics' Mag. 10 July 23 When taper or ‘*wedge-sided’ type is employed, the cylinder need not be more in circumference than the size of the sheet of paper. |
| 1854 Ct. E. de Warren tr. De Saulcy's Round Dead Sea II. 113 The voussoir, or early *wedge-stone. |
| 1879 Man. Artill. Exerc. 53 *Wedge wads..consist of two wooden wedges connected by a piece of cane... These wads are to be rammed home separately after the projectiles. |
b. Designating a wedge-shaped heel extended under the instep of a woman's shoe (also, the sole which includes this), or a shoe having such a heel. Freq. as
wedge-heel,
wedge shoe,
wedge sole;
wedge-heeled,
wedge-soled adjs. Cf. sense 5 k above.
| 1939 M. B. Picken Lang. Fashion 164/3 Wedge-soled, having a wedge-shaped piece making a solid sole, flat on the ground from heel to toe. 1940 Graves & Hodge Long Week-End xxi. 375 A high-heeled fancy shoe..and a wedge-heeled streamlined type. 1940 Manch. Guardian Weekly 11 Oct. 259 Today's displays of courts..and wedge-heel, and all other of the creations of the fashion-designer, give no indication..of what was really a welcome weeding out. 1940 O. Nash in New Yorker 23 Nov. 18/2 Let us give thanks that women's wedge shoes weren't invented until they were. 1942 in C. W. Cunnington Eng. Women's Clothing in Present Cent. (1952) viii. 271 Practical [shoes], with flatter heels, square toed and wedge-soled. 1951 [see creeper 1 d]. 1957 R. Hoggart Uses of Literacy iv. 102 Mail-order firms advertise fancy wedge-shoes. 1975 D. Beaty Electric Train 153 Painted faces clumping up..on six-inch wedge shoes. 1983 P. Devlin All of us Here x. 112 Her daughter, in a new permanently pleated skirt, wedge-heeled shoes. |
10. Special comb.:
† wedge-battle = sense 5 a;
wedge-bill, a bird with a wedge-shaped bill, as (
a) the Australian
Sphenostoma cristatum; (
b) a S. American humming-bird of the genus
Schistes;
wedge-bone,
† (
a) the sphenoid bone; (
b) a small bone sometimes occurring in lizards on the undersurface of the spinal column at the junction of a pair of vertebræ;
wedge-coral (see
quot.);
wedge-draining, a mode of draining land, somewhat similar to
plug-draining;
wedge-fern, a fossil fern of the genus
Sphenopteris;
wedge-fid Naut. (see
quot.);
wedge-form,
-formed adjs. = wedge-shaped;
wedge-grafting (see
quots.);
wedge-gun, a field-gun in which a wedge is used in closing the breech;
wedge-leaf fern = wedge-fern;
wedge-micrometer, a graduated wedge-shaped piece of metal or glass, to be thrust between two fixed points to determine their distance apart;
wedge-photometer Astr., an instrument consisting of a wedge of glass, used for measuring the comparative brightness of stars;
wedge-press, a press used for extracting oil from seeds;
wedge-shell, a marine bivalve, belonging to
Donax or allied genera;
wedge-tail Austral., the wedge-tailed eagle (see
wedge-tailed adj.);
= eagle-hawk 2;
wedge-tailed a., having a wedge-shaped tail; used
spec. in the names of birds, as the wedge-tailed eagle (
Uroaetus audax) of Australia, and the wedge-tailed gull,
Rhodostethia rosea;
wedge tent = A tent.
| 1598 Barret Theor. Warres 78 Out of a square of men hath bin reduced a triangle or *wedge battell in perfect order to fight. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 273 The wedge battell of the Christians could not of the Turks be broken. |
| 1848 Gould Birds of Australia III. Pl. 17 Crested *Wedge-bill. 1861 ― Trochil. IV. Pl. 219 Schistes personatus,..Masked Wedge-bill. Ibid. Pl. 220 White-throated Wedge-bill. |
| 1615 Crooke Body of Man 442 Sphenoides or the *Wedge-bone. 1871 Huxley Anat. Vert. v. 217 Such a..sub-vertebral wedge-bone is commonly developed beneath and between the odontoid bone and the body of the second vertebra. |
| 1860 Gosse Actinol. Brit. 324 The Smooth-ribbed *Wedge-coral. Sphenotrochus Macandrewanus. Ibid. 326 The Knotted Wedge-coral. Sphenotrochus Wrightii. |
| 1830 Cumb. Farm Rep. 67 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, The *wedge or brick draining..is certainly not so well known among practical farmers as its merits deserve. |
| 1867 W. W. Smyth Coal & Coal-mining 36 Sphenopteris (*wedge-fern). |
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., *Wedge-fids, for top and top-gallant masts; in two parts, lifting by shores and sett-wedges. |
| 1822 J. Parkinson Outl. Oryctol. 221 Ovatedly *wedge-form. 1843 Holtzapffel Turning I. 15 In many plants the wedge⁓form plates..appear as an irregular cellular tissue. |
| 1822 J. Parkinson Outl. Oryctol. 188 A longitudinal, *wedge-formed, equivalved bivalve. 1861 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) III. 265 These packets cohere into many wedge-formed masses in Orchis. |
| 1838 W. Barron in Gardener's Mag. XIV. 80 The grafting of the Cedrus Deodara on the Cedar of Lebanon..is accomplished by what I call *wedge-grafting. 1842 Loudon Suburban Hort. §657 Wedge-grafting..is a modification of side-grafting. Ibid. §664 Herbaceous wedge-grafting is effected by paring the scion into a wedge shape, and inserting it into a corresponding slit in the stock. |
| 1876 Voyle & Stevenson Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), *Wedge Gun. |
| 1851 Mantell Petrif. 32 The other characteristic Wealden plant is the Sphenopteris (S. Mantelli), or *wedge-leaf fern. |
| 1891 Century Dict. s.v. Micrometer, *Wedge-micrometer. |
| 1883 C. Pritchard in Mem. R. Astron. Soc. XLVII. 394 The question, then, arises as to the applicability of the *wedge-photometer to the measurement of the magnitude..of such stars. |
| 1844 Penny Mag. Sept. 381 The triturated seeds were put into woollen bags which were wrapped up in hair-cloths, and then submitted to the *wedge-press. |
| 1820 Wodarch Introd. Conchol. 23 Donax.—*Wedge-shell. |
| 1935 A. C. Chisholm Bird Wonders Austral. x. 102 The *Wedge-tail is a formidable foe for any native mammal. 1965 [see eagle-hawk 2]. 1974 D. Stuart Prince of my Country ii. 9 Watching the long effortless circling of the wedgetail high in the air. 1977 Times Lit. Suppl. 21 Jan. 76/2 Australia is the only place in the whole world where the wedgetail eagle is known. |
| 1848 Gould Birds of Australia I. Pl. 1 *Wedge-tailed Eagle. 1872 Coues Key N. Amer. Birds 316 Wedge-tailed, or Ross' Rosy Gull. 1898 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Canvas Town Rom. 73 The great wedge-tailed Eagle soaring above them. |
| 1862 O. W. Norton Army Lett. (1903) 49 We used to sleep on the ground or on pine boughs when we had the small *wedge tents. 1940 G. W. Martin Mod. Camping Guide v. 86 The wedge tent, known also as the A tent, is a popular model with explorers and other outdoorsmen who want something a little larger than a tiny crawl-in tent. 1980 D. T. Roscoe Your Bk. Camping (‘Your Bk.’ Ser.) ii. 22 Wedge tents..are designed to save weight and bulk and to withstand wind better when the smaller end is pitched directly into it. |
Add:
[4.] b. A wad of bank notes; hence, (a significant amount of) money.
Cf. sense 3 b above.
slang (
orig. Criminals').
| 1977 D. Powis Signs of Crime 207 Wedge, large number of banknotes folded once. 1981 Times 4 Aug. 10/2 Top villains..share an idiosyncratic argot (‘wedge’, for example, for a stack of money). 1987 Melody Maker 8 Aug. 46 (Advt.), Don't part with your hard earned wedge until you've seen it. 1990 Times 22 June 19/2 It was a decision dictated by finance... Somebody offered me a lot of wedge. |
▸
wedge issue n. Polit. (
orig. and chiefly
N. Amer.) an extremely divisive issue,
esp. viewed as a means of drawing voters away from a political party split by it.
| 1982 Chicago Tribune 13 May i. 23/5 It is Kennedy, today, who is promoting the high-visibility cause of the nuclear freeze, a *wedge issue if ever there was one. 1991 Newsweek 16 Dec. 28/3 Black is an expert in the use of ‘wedge issues’, like crime and the flag, to split off conservative white males from the Democratic Party. 1998 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 22 Oct. 74/1 The Croatian offensive proved to be a wedge issue that divided not only Americans and Europeans, but the top echelons of the American government itself. 2004 J. Micklethwait & A. Wooldridge Right Nation xii. 311 Conservatives were the first to turn abortion into a wedge issue in the South, as values trumped class in American politics. |
▪ II. wedge, v.1 (
wɛdʒ)
Also 5–6
wegge.
[f. wedge n.] 1. a. trans. To tighten, fasten tight by driving in a wedge or wedges. Also with
in,
on,
up.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 520/1 Wedge, wythe a wedge [Winch. Wegge with a wegge], cuneo. 1523–34 Fitzherb. Husb. §24 Than maye he.. tothe the rakes.. and driue the tethe vpwarde faste and harde, and than wedge them aboue with drye woode of oke. 1667 Boyle in Phil. Trans. II. 590 A piece of Shining Wood, wedged in with a piece of Cork. 1678 Moxon Mech. Exerc. iv. 66 The Iron [of the Plane] being then well wedg'd up. 1722 A. Philips Briton iii. v. 32 My Chariot straight; another, for the Prince. Store them with Spears; wedge on the keenest Scythes. a 1790 W. Newton tr. Vitruvius vi. xi. (1791) 146 When posts are placed under them, and wedged, the beams cannot settle or be damaged. 1816 Jane Austen Emma xxviii, I have been assisting Miss Fairfax in trying to make her instrument stand steadily... You see we have been wedging one leg with paper. 1826 Gwilt tr. Vitruvius vi. xi. (1860) 148 When posts are introduced and wedged up under them, the beams are prevented from sagging. 1840 H. S. Tanner Canals & Rail Roads U.S. 151 The wooden key used in wedging fast the upper string piece. 1842 Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Engin. II. 78 Compressed trenails..would hold tighter than the trenails now used, which require to have the points split and wedged up. 1875 Carpentry & Joinery 55 The simple but useful operation of wedging tenon and mortice joints. |
† b. transf. and
fig. To fasten firmly or attach
to.
Obs.| 1629 Maxwell tr. Herodian iv. 191 Both the Emperours..seeking to win and wedge men to their seuerall Factions, by faire Promises. 1670 G. H. Hist. Cardinals i. ii. 46 They find the Prelates and Popes themselves, so wedg'd and link'd to Secular advantages, they have not time to think upon God. |
† c. To render (a gun) useless by the insertion of a wedge.
Obs.| 1680 Exact Jrnl. Siege Tangier 8 Leaving the Guns double shotted, spiked and wedged with steel. Ibid. 11 The Men of Charles Fort having Spiked and Wedged their great Guns. |
d. to wedge up: to raise a ship before launching, by means of slivers or wedges driven between the false keel and the bilgeways.
| 1879 ‘H. Collingwood’ Secret of Sands xix, Four months..saw her caulked, her seams paid, her hull painted, and, in short, everything ready, even to wedging up, for launching. |
2. a. To cleave or split by driving in a wedge.
| 1530 Palsgr. 778/2, I wedge a blocke, I put in a wedge to cleave it, je coigne... Wedge this blocke, it wyll ryve the soner. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. i. 35 My heart, As wedged with a sigh, would riue in twaine. 1678 [see wedging vbl. n. 1]. |
b. To split
off, to force
apart,
asunder, or
open, by driving in a wedge. Also
fig.| 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xlvi. (1856) 423 And even now great ledges are wedged off from the hillsides by the ice. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xix. vi. (1873) VIII. 201 Friedrich and he are wedged asunder by that dike of Russians and Austrians. 1873 J. T. Moggridge Harv. Ants i. 33 Having contrived to wedge off several large flakes of the rock. 1894 Advance (Chicago) Oct. 4 It is not commonly the big things but the little ones which wedge pastor and people apart. 1914 H. Balfour in Jrnl. R. Anthrop. Inst. XLIV. 33 A billet of lime wood, split at one end and wedged open with a stone. |
3. a. transf. To drive, push, or squeeze (an object) into something where it is held fast; to fix firmly by driving in, or by pressing tight. Const.
into,
in,
under,
between. Also with
adv., as
in,
up,
down.
| 1513 Douglas æneis xi. xv. 85 Quhill that the lance..wedgyt deip within hir cost stude. 1607 Dekker Whore of Babylon L 1, Fall thunder, And wedge me into earth, stiffe as I am. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iv. i. 58 Among the crow'd i' th' abbey, where a finger Could not be wedg'd in more. 1665 J. Webb Stone-Heng 190 These [stones] also were either of a Wedge fashion, or wedged under the Great One. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. I. vii. 195 Besides what Gold and Sand they take up together, they often find great lumps, wedg'd between the Rocks. 1697 Dryden æneis v. 285 Sergestus in the Centaur soon he pass'd, Wedg'd in the Rocky Sholes, and sticking fast. 1726 Swift Gulliver ii. iii, Squeezing my legs together, [he] wedged them into the marrow-bone above my waist. 1764 Foote Patron iii. Wks. 1799 I. 353, I was wedged so close in the pit, that I could scarcely get out. 1806 A. Duncan Life of Nelson 12 They became..fast wedged in the ice. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 336 If a coach or a cart entered those alleys, there was danger that it would be wedged between the houses. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. vii. 43 The boy..tried to wedge some of his cake into her mouth. 1869 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. xiv, Driven into that nook, and wedged as he had described, was Gaffer's boat. 1870 Spectator 19 Nov. 1370/1 If they are permitted to go on, they will wedge themselves in between the Germans, and be able to enfilade the corps on each side. 1890 Hardwicke's Sci.-Gossip XXVI. 239 In its persevering search for the snails, it had got its head tightly wedged some distance into the wall. 1908 H. Wales Old Allegiance i. 14 He..sat with..his pipe firmly wedged in the corner of his mouth. |
b. fig.| 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. iii. 30 Nay your wit will not so soone out as another mans will, 'tis strongly wedg'd vp in a blocke head. a 1659 Bp. Brownrig Serm. (1674) I. xxvi. 340 He wedges in the other Prayer for a competency of temporal things. 1730 Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.) VI. 29 Having been wedged down in this detestible place [the Fleet prison] by an incurable and painful malady, poverty and tatters. |
4. To pack or crowd (a number of persons or animals) in close formation, or in a limited space. Also with
together.
| 1720 Pope Iliad xvii. 846 While Greece a heavy, thick Retreat maintains, Wedg'd in one Body like a Flight of Cranes. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. i. (1782) I. 16 The strength of the phalanx depended on sixteen ranks of long pikes, wedged together in the closest array. 1807 J. Barlow Columb. iii. 766 Here Zamor ranged his ax-men deep and wide, Wedged like a wall and thus the king defied. 1844 M. T. Asmar Mem. Babylonian Princ. II. 68 The crowd was prodigious. Men, women, and even children were wedged in one dense mass. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. xiv. (1858) 465 A dense mass of pilgrims who sit or stand wedged round it. 1871 Carlyle in Mrs. Carlyle's Lett. (1883) I. 8 The 2,000 human figures, wedged in the huge room into one dark mass, were singular to look down upon. |
5. intr. a. To become fixed or jammed tight by (or as by) the operation of a wedge.
| 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 55 Which all wedge together and intersect one another both with equal and unequal Angles. 1893 Atlantic Monthly Feb. 197/2 The men started carefully, holding the saw quite true that later it might not wedge. |
b. To force one's way
in.
rare.
| 1616 B. Jonson Devil an Ass iii. iii. 26 This comes of..haunting The Globes, and Mermaides! wedging in with Lords, Still at the table! |
c. to wedge their way, to fly in a wedge-shaped formation, tapering to the front or van.
poet.| 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 426 Part loosly wing the Region, part more wise In common, rang'd in figure wedge thir way. |
6. to wedge out (
Geol.):
= thin out s.v. thin v.
1 2 a;
= lens out s.v. lens v.
| 1819 [implied in wedging out s.v. wedging vbl. n. 4]. 1839 R. I. Murchison Silurian Syst. 140 Limestone.. can be traced tapering away from a central mass to thin extremities, which really wedge out between the coal grits and the older deposits. 1945 Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists XXIX. 1563 The distinction from the Permeability Trap Reservoirs is made by restricting the Pinch-Out Trap Reservoirs to types located in such stratigraphic intervals or zones which actually wedge out. 1966 Earth-Sci. Rev. I. 163 Ignimbrites tend to wedge out against or thin over topographic highs. 1979 Nature 27 Sept. 267/1 These nappes wedge out and converge to the west and seem to represent a telescoping of Lower Palæozoic Facies. |
▪ III. wedge, v.2 (
wɛdʒ)
In 7
wage.
[Of obscure origin; the modern form is prob. less correct than the earlier wage, but cf. wedge n. 4.] trans. To cut (wet clay) into masses and work them by kneading and throwing down, in order to expel air-bubbles. Hence
ˈwedging vbl. n.| 1686 Plot Staffordsh. 123 [Potter's clay] is brought to the wageing board, where it is slit into flat thin pieces..: This being done, they wage it, i.e. knead or mould it like bread. 1825 J. Nicholson Oper. Mech. 461 Wedging the clay is a similar process [to that of slapping]... The presser cuts off, with a thin brass wire, a piece of clay from the mass, which he slaps forcibly between the palms of his hands, and then with great violence throws it on the board. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 1011 The first of which is called the potter's sloping [ed. 5, 1860 slapping] or wedging. 1860 W. White Wrekin xxvii. 297 The [pug-]mill, however, continued to work, and in time convinced the men of their stupidity; and now, if a man were ordered to ‘wedge’ his own clay, his answer would be ‘Aw'll stroike first’. Ibid., The clay..is..thrown into the ‘pug-mill’, or ‘wedging-mill’, a large upright cylinder, in which it is forced or screwed gradually downwards, and extruded at the bottom in a continuous cubical mass. |
▪ IV. wedge obs. var. wage n. and v.
| 1530 Palsgr. 287/2 Wedge a pledge, gaige, pleige. Ibid. 778/2, I wedge, I lay in pledge, je gaige. I wedge my heed it is nat so. |