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.