Wedge
[Noun]
Webster's Dictionary 1828
1. A mass of metal; as a wedge of gold or silver.
Joshua 7:21 .
2. A piece of metal, particularly iron, thick at one end and sloping to a thin edge at the other, used in
splitting wood, rocks, etc. This is one of the five mechanical powers. A like piece of wood is by some persons called a wedge or a
glut.
3. Something in the form of a wedge Sometimes bodies of troops are drawn up in the form of a wedge
Wedge
[Verb transitive]
Webster's Dictionary 1828
1. To
cleave with a wedge; to
rive. [Little used.]
2. To drive as a wedge is drive; to crowd or
compress closely. We were
wedged in by the crowd.
3. To force, as a wedge forces its way; as, to wedge ones way.
4. To
fasten with a wedge or with wedges; as, to wedge on a
sythe; to wedge in a rail or a piece of timber.
5. To fix in the manner of a wedge
6. Wedgd in the rocky shoals, and sticking fast.
Wedge
[Noun]
Webster's Dictionary 1913
1. A piece of metal, or other hard material, thick at one end, and
tapering to a thin edge at the other, used in
splitting wood, rocks, etc., in raising heavy bodies, and the like. It is one of the six elementary machines called the mechanical powers. See Illust. of Mechanical powers, under Mechanical.
2. A solid of five sides, having a rectangular base, two rectangular or
trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.
3. A mass of metal, especially when of a wedgelike form.
4. Anything in the form of a wedge, as a body of troops drawn up in such a form.
5. The person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical
tripos; -- so called after a person (Wedgewood) who occupied this position on the first list of 1828.
Wedge
[Verb transitive]
Webster's Dictionary 1913
1. To
cleave or separate with a wedge or wedges, or as with a wedge; to
rive.
2. To force or drive as a wedge is driven.
3. To force by crowding and
pushing as a wedge does; as, to wedge one's way.
4. To press closely; to fix, or make fast, in the manner of a wedge that is driven into something.
5. To
fasten with a wedge, or with wedges; as, to wedge a
scythe on the
snath; to wedge a rail or a piece of timber in its place.
6. To cut, as clay, into wedgelike masses, and work by
dashing together, in order to
expel air bubbles, etc.
Any one of numerous species of small marine bivalves belonging to
Donax and allied genera in which the shell is
wedge-shaped.
Having a tail which has the middle pair of feathers longest, the rest successively and decidedly shorter, and all more or less
attenuate; -- said of certain birds. See Illust. of Wood
hoopoe, under Wood.
An Australian crested
insessorial bird (Sphenostoma cristatum) having a
wedge-shaped bill. Its color is dull brown, like the earth of the plains where it lives.
