wedge (wĕj)
n.

1. 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.
2. 1. Something shaped like a wedge: a wedge of pie.
   2. Downstate New York. See submarine (sense 2). See Regional Note at submarine.
   3. A wedge-shaped formation, as in ground warfare.
3. 1. Something that intrudes and causes division or disruption: His nomination drove a wedge into party unity.
   2. Something that forces an opening or a beginning: a wedge in the war on poverty.
4. Meteorology. See ridge (sense 4).
5. Sports. An iron golf club with a very slanted face, used to lift the ball, as from sand.
6. One of the triangular characters of cuneiform writing.

v., wedged, wedg·ing, wedg·es.

v.tr.

1. To split or force apart with or as if with a wedge.
2. To fix in place or tighten with a wedge.
3. To crowd or squeeze into a limited space.

v.intr.
To become lodged or jammed.

[Middle English wegge, from Old English wecg.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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