Chapter Weaver to Weed of W by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

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.

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.

Wedgebill
(Wedge"bill`) n. (Zoöl.) 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.

Wedge-formed
(Wedge"-formed`) a. Having the form of a wedge; cuneiform.

Wedge-formed characters. See Arrow-headed characters, under Arrowheaded.

Wedge-shaped
(Wedge"-shaped`) a.

1. Having the shape of a wedge; cuneiform.

2. (Bot.) Broad and truncate at the summit, and tapering down to the base; as, a wedge-shaped leaf.

Wedge-shell
(Wedge"-shell`) n. (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of small marine bivalves belonging to Donax and allied genera in which the shell is wedge- shaped.

Wedge-tailed
(Wedge"-tailed") a. (Zoöl.) 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.

Wedge-tailed eagle, an Australian eagle (Aquila audax) which feeds on various small species of kangaroos, and on lambs; — called also mountain eagle, bold eagle, and eagle hawk. — Wedge-tailed gull, an arctic gull (Rhodostethia rosea) in which the plumage is tinged with rose; — called also Ross's gull.