WEDGE, n. [This word signifies a mass, a lump.] 1. A mass of metal; as a wedge of gold or silver. Joshua 7.2. A piece of metal, particularly iron, thick at one end and sloping to a thin edge at the other, used in splitting wood, rocks, &c. This is one of the five mechanical powers. A like piece of wood is by some persons called a wedge, or a glut.3. Something in the form of a wedge. Sometimes bodies of troops are drawn up in the form of a wedge.WEDGE, v.t. 1. To cleave with a wedge; to rive. [Little used.]2. To drive as a wedge is drive; to crowd or compress closely. We were wedged in by the crowd.3. To force, as a wedge forces its way; as, to wedge ones way.4. To fasten with a wedge or with wedges; as, to wedge on a sythe; to wedge in a rail or a piece of timber.5. To fix in the manner of a wedge.Wedgd in the rocky shoals, and sticking fast.
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