— 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.
[ bef. 900; ME wegge (n.), OE wecg; c. dial. G Weck (OHG wecki ), ON veggr ]
Syn. 14. cram, jam, stuff, crowd, squeeze.
Regional Variation. 10. See hero sandwich .