What is "wedge"

Wedge \Wedge\ (w[e^]j), n. [OE. wegge, AS. wecg; akin to D. wig, wigge, OHG. wecki, G. weck a (wedge-shaped) loaf, Icel. veggr, Dan. v[ae]gge, Sw. vigg, and probably to Lith. vagis a peg. Cf. Wigg.]

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. (Geom.) 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. ``Wedges of gold.''
   --Shak.

4. Anything in the form of a wedge, as a body of troops drawn up in such a form.

   In warlike muster they appear, In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings.
   --Milton.

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. [Cant, Cambridge Univ., Eng.]
   --C. A. Bristed.

6. (Golf) A golf club having an iron head with the face nearly horizontal, used for lofting the golf ball at a high angle, as when hitting the ball out of a sand trap or the rough.

   Fox wedge. (Mach. & Carpentry) See under Fox.

   Spherical wedge (Geom.), the portion of a sphere included between two planes which intersect in a diameter.

Wedge \Wedge\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Wedged; p. pr. & vb. n. Wedging.]

1. To cleave or separate with a wedge or wedges, or as with a wedge; to rive. ``My heart, as wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain.''
   --Shak.

2. To force or drive as a wedge is driven.

   Among the crowd in the abbey where a finger Could not be wedged in more.
   --Shak.

   He 's just the sort of man to wedge himself into a snug berth.
   --Mrs. J. H. Ewing.

3. To force by crowding and pushing as a wedge does; as, to wedge one's way.
   --Milton.

4. To press closely; to fix, or make fast, in the manner of a wedge that is driven into something.

   Wedged in the rocky shoals, and sticking fast.
   --Dryden.

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. (Pottery) To cut, as clay, into wedgelike masses, and work by dashing together, in order to expel air bubbles, etc.
   --Tomlinson.

Old English wecg "a wedge," from Proto-Germanic *wagjaz (cognates: Old Norse veggr, Middle Dutch wegge, Dutch wig, Old High German weggi "wedge," dialectal German Weck "wedge-shaped bread roll"), of uncertain origin; perhaps related to Latin vomer "plowshare." From 1610s in reference to other things shaped like a wedge. Of women's shoes or shoe-heels, from 1939. Wedge issue is attested from 1999.

early 15c., "jam in place with a wedge; tighten with a wedge," from wedge (n.). Figurative sense "drive or pack (into)" is from 1720. Meaning "split (something) apart with a wedge" attested by 1853. Related: Wedged; wedging.\n

Etymology 1 n. 1 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 (http://en.wikipedi

1. org/wiki/Wedge%20(mechanical%20device)). 2 A piece (of food etc.) having this shape. 3 (context geometry English) A five-sided polyhedron with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends. 4 (context figurative English) Something that creates a division, gap or distance between things. 5 (context archaic English) A flank of cavalry acting to split some portion of an opposing army, charging in an inverted V formation. 6 (context golf English) A type of iron club used for short, high trajectories. 7 A group of goose, swans or other birds when they are in flight in a V formation. 8 (context in the plural English) Wedge-heeled shoes. 9 (context colloquial British English) A quantity of money. 10 (context typography US English) = (l en háček) 11 (context phonetics English) The (l en IPA) character (IPAchar: <ʌ>), which denotes an http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid%20back%20unrounded%20vowel. 12 (label en mathematics) The symbol (m mul ∧), denoting a meet (infimum) operation or logical conjunction. v

2. 1 To support or secure using a wedge. 2 To force into a narrow gap. 3 To work wet clay by cutting or knead for the purpose of homogenizing the mass and expelling air bubbles. Etymology 2

   n. (context UK Cambridge University slang English) The person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos.

1. v. fix, force, or implant; "lodge a bullet in the table" [syn: lodge, stick, deposit] [ant: dislodge]

2. squeeze like a wedge into a tight space; "I squeezed myself into the corner" [syn: squeeze, force]

1. n. any shape that is triangular in cross section [syn: wedge shape, cuneus]

2. a large sandwich made of a long crusty roll split lengthwise and filled with meats and cheese (and tomato and onion and lettuce and condiments); different names are used in different sections of the United States [syn: bomber, grinder, hero, hero sandwich, hoagie, hoagy, Cuban sandwich, Italian sandwich, poor boy, sub, submarine, submarine sandwich, torpedo, zep]

3. a diacritical mark (an inverted circumflex) placed above certain letters (such as c) to indicate pronunciation [syn: hacek]

4. a heel that is an extension of the sole of the shoe [syn: wedge heel]

5. (golf) an iron with considerable loft and a broad sole

6. something solid that is usable as an inclined plane (shaped like a V) that can be pushed between two things to separate them

7. a block of wood used to prevent the sliding or rolling of a heavy object [syn: chock]

The Wedge (or Delaware Wedge) is a small tract of land along the borders of Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Ownership of the land was disputed until 1921; it is now recognized as part of Delaware. The tract was created primarily by the shortcomings of contemporary surveying techniques. It is bounded on the north by an eastern extension of the east-west portion of the Mason–Dixon Line, on the west by the north-south portion of the Mason–Dixon line, and on the southeast by the New Castle, Delaware Twelve-Mile Circle. The crossroads community of Mechanicsville, Delaware lies within the area today.

A wedge is a triangular shaped tool, and is a portable inclined plane, and one of the six classical simple machines. It can be used to separate two objects or portions of an object, lift up an object, or hold an object in place. It functions by converting a force applied to its blunt end into forces perpendicular ( normal) to its inclined surfaces. The mechanical advantage of a wedge is given by the ratio of the length of its slope to its width. Although a short wedge with a wide angle may do a job faster, it requires more force than a long wedge with a narrow angle.

In the sport of golf, a wedge is a subset of the iron family of golf clubs designed for special use situations. As a class, wedges have the highest lofts, the shortest shafts, and the heaviest clubheads of the irons. These features generally aid the player in making accurate short-distance "lob" shots, to get the ball onto the green or out of a hazard or other tricky spot. In addition, wedges are designed with modified soles that aid the player in moving the clubhead through soft lies, such as sand, mud, and thick grass, to extract a ball that is embedded or even buried. Wedges come in a variety of configurations, and are generally grouped into four categories; pitching wedges, sand wedges, gap/approach wedges and lob wedges.

Wedge, The Wedge, or Wedges may refer to:

Wedge boots, wedgies, or lifties are shoes and boots with a sole in the form of a wedge, such that one piece of material, normally rubber, serves as both the sole and the heel. This design dates back to ancient Greece.

Wedgies for women are more common and often have a sole that is much thicker at the back than at the front, making them high-heeled boots or shoes. Wedgies for women were popularized by Salvatore Ferragamo, who introduced the design to the Italian market in the late 1930s.

Men's wedge boots, usually called "wedgies," typically have low heels. Men's boots of this kind became popular during the 1970s. They are making a comeback in 2010s..

Some forms of wedge boots, called platform boots, have thick soles throughout.

Wedge (∧) is a symbol used to represent:

• Logical conjunction in propositional logic
• Meet in lattice theory
• Exterior product or wedge product in differential geometry.

In Unicode the symbol is encoded and by \wedge and \land in TeX. The opposite symbol is called a vel, or sometimes a (descending) wedge. Some authors who call the descending wedge 'vel' often call the ascending wedge ac (the corresponding Latin word for "and", also spelled "atque") keeping their usage parallel.

The wedge looks similar to the caret .