Dictionary

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.

Example: Stick a wedge under the door, will you? It keeps blowing shut.

A piece (of food, metal, wood etc.) having this shape.

Example: Can you cut me a wedge of cheese?

A five-sided polyhedron with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.

Something that creates a division, gap or distance between things.

To support or secure using a wedge.

Example: I wedged open the window with a screwdriver.

To force into a narrow gap.

Example: He had wedged the package between the wall and the back of the sofa.

To work wet clay by cutting or kneading for the purpose of homogenizing the mass and expelling air bubbles.

Of a computer program or system: to get stuck in an unresponsive state.

Example: My Linux kernel wedged after I installed the latest update.

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