wedge
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Pronunciation [edit]
Etymology [edit]
Middle English wegge (“wedge”), Old English wecg (“wedge”)
Noun [edit]
wedge (plural wedges)
- One 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 (Wikipedia article).
- Stick a wedge under the door, will you, it keeps blowing shut.
- A piece (of food etc.) having this shape.
- Can you cut me a wedge of cheese?
- (archaic) A flank of cavalry acting to split some portion of an opposing army, charging in an inverted V formation.
- (golf) A type of iron club used for short, high trajectories.
- A group of geese or swans when they are in flight in a V formation.
- (in the plural) Wedge-heeled shoes.
- (colloquial, UK) A quantity of money.
- I made a big fat wedge from that job.
- (typography, US) = háček
- 1982, Thomas Pyles and John Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language (3rd ed.), page 49
- The wedge is used in Czech and is illustrated by the Czech name for the diacritic, haček.
- 1996, Geoffrey Keith Pullum and William A. Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide (2nd ed.), page xxvi
- The tilde and the circumflex have a place in the ASCII scheme but the wedge and the umlaut do not.
- 1999, Florian Coulmas, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems, page 193, “háček”
- 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.
- 1982, Thomas Pyles and John Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language (3rd ed.), page 49
- (phonetics) The IPA character <ʌ>, which denotes an open-mid back unrounded vowel.
- 1996, Geoffrey Keith Pullum and William A. Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide (2nd ed.), page 19
- 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 and William A. Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide (2nd ed.), page 19
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
simple machine
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piece of food etc.
flank of cavalry
group of geese or swans in flight
wedge-heeled shoe
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Verb [edit]
wedge (third-person singular simple present wedges, present participle wedging, simple past and past participle wedged)
- To support or secure using a wedge.
- I wedged open the window with a screwdriver.
- 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1
- "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.
- To force into a narrow gap.
- He had wedged the package between the wall and the back of the sofa.
- To work wet clay by cutting or kneading for the purpose of homogenizing the mass and expelling air bubbles.
Translations [edit]
to support or secure using a wedge
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to force into a narrow gap
Derived terms [edit]
Terms derived from the noun or verb wedge
