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—wedgelike, adj./wej/, n., v., wedged, wedging.n.1. a piece of hard material with two principal faces meeting in a sharply acute angle, for raising, holding, or splitting objects by applying a pounding or driving force, as from a hammer. Cf. machine (def. 3b).2. a piece of anything of like shape: a wedge of pie.3. a cuneiform character or stroke of this shape.4. Meteorol. (formerly) an elongated area of relatively high pressure.5. something that serves to part, split, divide, etc.: The quarrel drove a wedge into the party organization.6. Mil. (formerly) a tactical formation generally in the form of a V with the point toward the enemy.7. Golf. a club with an iron head the face of which is nearly horizontal, for lofting the ball, esp. out of sand traps and high grass.8. Optics. See optical wedge.9. hacek.10. Chiefly Coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island. a hero sandwich.11. a wedge heel or shoe with such a heel.v.t.12. to separate or split with or as if with a wedge (often fol. by open, apart, etc.): to wedge open a log.13. to insert or fix with a wedge.14. to pack or fix tightly: to wedge clothes into a suitcase.15. to thrust, drive, fix, etc., like a wedge: He wedged himself through the narrow opening.16. Ceram. to pound (clay) in order to remove air bubbles.17. to fell or direct the fall of (a tree) by driving wedges into the cut made by the saw.v.i.18. to force a way like a wedge (usually fol. by in, into, through, etc.): The box won't wedge into such a narrow space.Syn. 14. cram, jam, stuff, crowd, squeeze.Regional Variation. 10. See hero sandwich.
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In mechanics, a device that tapers to a thin edge, usually made of metal or wood, and used for splitting, lifting, or tightening, such as to secure a hammer head onto its handle.The wedge is considered one of the five simple machines. Wedges have been used since prehistoric times to split logs and rocks; for rocks, wooden wedges, caused to swell by wetting, have been used. In terms of its mechanical function, the screw may be thought of as a wedge wrapped around a cylinder.* * *
in mechanics, device that tapers to a thin edge, usually made of metal or wood, and used for splitting, lifting, or tightening, as to secure a hammer head onto its handle. Along with the lever, wheel and axle, pulley, and screw, the wedge is considered one of the five simple machines.The wedge was used in prehistoric times to split logs and rocks; for rocks, wooden wedges, caused to swell by wetting, were employed. In terms of its mechanical function, the screw may be thought of as a wedge wrapped around a cylinder.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
