wedge

American  

[wej] / wɛdʒ /

noun

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.

2. a piece of anything of like shape.

   a wedge of pie.

3. a cuneiform character or stroke of this shape.

4. Meteorology. (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. Military. (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, especially out of sand traps and high grass.

8. Optics. optical wedge.

9. haček.

10. Chiefly Coastal Connecticut and Rhode Island. a hero sandwich.

11. a wedge heel or shoe with such a heel.

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verb (used with object)

wedged, wedging

1. to separate or split with or as if with a wedge (often followed by open, apart, etc.).

   to wedge open a log.

2. to insert or fix with a wedge.

3. to pack or fix tightly.

   to wedge clothes into a suitcase.

   Synonyms:

   squeeze, crowd, stuff, jam, cram

4. to thrust, drive, fix, etc., like a wedge.

   He wedged himself through the narrow opening.

5. Ceramics. to pound (clay) in order to remove air bubbles.

6. to fell or direct the fall of (a tree) by driving wedges into the cut made by the saw.

verb (used without object)

wedged, wedging

1. to force a way like a wedge (usually followed by in, into, through, etc.).

   The box won't wedge into such a narrow space.

wedge British  

/ wɛdʒ /

noun

1. a block of solid material, esp wood or metal, that is shaped like a narrow V in cross section and can be pushed or driven between two objects or parts of an object in order to split or secure them

2. any formation, structure, or substance in the shape of a wedge

   a wedge of cheese

3. something such as an idea, action, etc, that tends to cause division

4. a shoe with a wedge heel

5. golf a club with a face angle of more than 50°, used for bunker shots ( sand wedge ) or pitch shots ( pitching wedge )

6. a wedge-shaped extension of the high pressure area of an anticyclone, narrower than a ridge

7. mountaineering a wedge-shaped device, formerly of wood, now usually of hollow steel, for hammering into a crack to provide an anchor point

8. any of the triangular characters used in cuneiform writing

9. (formerly) a body of troops formed in a V-shape

10. photog a strip of glass coated in such a way that it is clear at one end but becomes progressively more opaque towards the other end: used in making measurements of transmission density

11. slang a bribe

12. anything unimportant in itself that implies the start of something much larger

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verb

1. (tr) to secure with or as if with a wedge

2. to squeeze or be squeezed like a wedge into a narrow space

3. (tr) to force apart or divide with or as if with a wedge

wedge Idioms  

1. see thin edge of the wedge.

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Regionalisms

See hero sandwich.

Other Word Forms

• unwedge verb (used with object)
• wedgelike adjective
• wedgy adjective

Etymology

Origin of wedge

before 900; Middle English wegge (noun), Old English wecg; cognate with dialectal German Weck ( Old High German wecki ), Old Norse veggr

Example Sentences

We spent a fabulous hour chatting about how he invented the modern sand wedge and about my golfing hero - Walter Hagen - being a contemporary of his.

From BBC • Apr. 8, 2026

Researchers are now studying how ice wedge polygons, a common Arctic landscape feature, influence how water and carbon move toward coastal areas.

From Science Daily • Apr. 4, 2026

In 1962, the program spotted a small wedge of lake forming on the eastern side of the Lhonak glacier.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

The fund broke above a bullish falling wedge at $20 in the fourth quarter last year.

From Barron's • Mar. 24, 2026

Jay sat in a chair on the other side of the table and chewed on a ragged wedge of sugar cane from the counter.

From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce

Related Words

• chunk