Also 5–6 wegge. [f. WEDGE sb.]
1. trans. To tighten, fasten tight by driving in a wedge or wedges. Also with in, on, up.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 520/1. Wedge, wythe a wedge [Winch. Wegge with a wegg], cuneo.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 24. Than maye he … tothe the rakes … and driue the tethe vpwarde faste and harde, and than wedge them aboue with drye woode of oke.
1667. Boyle, in Phil. Trans., II. 590. A piece of Shining Wood, wedged in with a piece of Cork.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., iv. 66. The Iron [of the Plane] being then well wedg’d up.
1722. A. Philips, Briton, III. v. 32. My Chariot straight; another, for the Prince. Store them with Spears; wedge on the keenest Scythes.
a. 1790. W. Newton, trans. Vitruvius, VI. xi. (1791), 146. When posts are placed under them, and wedged, the beams cannot settle or be damaged.
1816. Jane Austen, Emma, xxviii. I have been assisting Miss Fairfax in trying to make her instrument stand steadily…. You see we have been wedging one leg with paper.
1826. Gwilt, trans. Vitruvius, VI. xi. (1860), 148. When posts are introduced and wedged up under them, the beams are prevented from sagging.
1840. H. S. Tanner, Canals & Rail Roads U. S., 151. A slant to accommodate the wooden key used in wedging fast the upper string piece.
1842. Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Engin., II. 78. Compressed trenails … would hold tighter than the trenails now used, which require to have the points split and wedged up.
1875. Carpentry & Joinery, 55. The simple but useful operation of wedging tenon and mortice joints.
† b. transf. and fig. To fasten firmly or attach to. Obs.
1629. Maxwell, trans. Herodian, IV. 191. Both the Emperours … seeking to win and wedge men to their seuerall Factions, by faire Promises.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. II. 46. They find the Prelates and Popes themselves, so wedg’d and link’d to Secular advantages, they have not time to think upon God.
† c. To render (a gun) useless by the insertion of a wedge. Obs.
1680. Exact Jrnl. Siege Tangier, 8. Leaving the Guns double shotted, spiked and wedged with steel. Ibid., 11. The Men of Charles Fort having Spiked and Wedged their great Guns.
d. To wedge up: to raise a ship before launching, by means of slivers or wedges driven between the false keel and the bilgeways.
1879. ‘H. Collingwood,’ Secret of Sands, xix. Four months … saw her caulked, her seams paid, her hull painted, and, in short, everything ready, even to wedging up, for launching.
2. To cleave or split by driving in a wedge.
1530. Palsgr., 778/2. I wedge a blocke, I put in a wedge to cleave it, je coigne.… Wedge this blocke, it wyll ryve the soner.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. i. 35. My heart, As wedged with a sigh, would riue in twaine.
1678. [see WEDGING vbl. sb. 1].
b. To split off, to force apart, asunder or open, by driving in a wedge. Also fig.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xlvi. (1856), 423. And even now great ledges are wedged off from the hillsides by the ice.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., XIX. vi. (1873), VIII. 201. Friedrich and he are wedged asunder by that dike of Russians and Austrians.
1873. Moggridge, Harv. Ants, I. 33. Having contrived to wedge off several large flakes of the rock.
1894. Advance (Chicago), Oct., 4. It is not commonly the big things but the little ones which wedge pastor and people apart.
1914. H. Balfour in Jrnl. R. Anthrop. Inst., XLIV. 33. A billet of lime wood, split at one end and wedged open with a stone.
3. transf. To drive, push or squeeze (an object) into something where it is held fast; to fix firmly by driving in, or by pressing tight. Const. into, in, under, between. Also with adv., as in, up, down.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XI. xv. 85. Quhill that the lance … wedgyt deip within hir cost stude.
1607. Dekker, Whore of Babylon, L 1. Fall thunder, And wedge me into earth, stiffe as I am.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., IV. i. 58. Among the crow’d i’ th’ abbey, where a finger Could not be wedg’d in more.
1665. J. Webb, Stone-Heng, 190. These [stones] also were either of a Wedge fashion, or wedged under the Great One.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. vii. 195. Besides what Gold and Sand they take up together, they often find great lumps, wedg’d between the Rocks.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, V. 285. Sergestus in the Centaur soon he pass’d, Wedg’d in the Rocky Sholes, and sticking fast.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, II. iii. Squeezing my legs together, [he] wedged them into the marrow-bone above my waist.
1764. Foote, Patron, III. Wks. 1799, I. 353. I was wedged so close in the pit, that I could scarcely get out.
1806. A. Duncan, Life of Nelson, 12. They became … fast wedged in the ice.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 336. If a coach or a cart entered those alleys, there was danger that it would be wedged between the houses.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., vii. 43. The boy … tried to wedge some of his cake into her mouth.
1869. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. xiv. Driven into that nook, and wedged as he had described, was Gaffer’s boat.
1870. Spectator, 19 Nov., 1370/1. If they are permitted to go on, they will wedge themselves in between the Germans, and be able to enfilade the corps on each side.
1890. Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXVI. 239. In its persevering search for the snails, it had got its head tightly wedged some distance into the wall.
1908. H. Wales, Old Allegiance, i. 14. He … sat with … his pipe firmly wedged in the corner of his mouth.
b. fig.
1607. Shaks., Cor., II. iii. 30. Nay your wit will not so soone out as another mans will, ’tis strongly wedg’d vp in a blocke head.
a. 1659. Bp. Brownrig, Serm. (1674), I. xxvi. 340. He wedges in the other Prayer for a competency of temporal things.
1730. Portland Papers (Hist. MSS. Comm.), VI. 29. Having been wedged down in this detestible place [the Fleet prison] by an incurable and painful malady, poverty and tatters.
4. To pack or crowd (a number of persons or animals) in close formation, or in a limited space. Also with together.
1720. Pope, Iliad, XVII. 846. While Greece a heavy, thick Retreat maintains, Wedg’d in one Body like a Flight of Cranes.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., i. (1782), I. 16. The strength of the phalanx depended on sixteen ranks of long pikes, wedged together in the closest array.
1807. J. Barlow, Columb., III. 766. Here Zamor ranged his ax-men deep and wide, Wedged like a wall and thus the king defied.
1844. Maria T. Asmar, Mem. Babylonian Princ., II. 68. The crowd was prodigious. Men, women, and even children were wedged in one dense mass.
1856. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., xiv. (1858), 465. A dense mass of pilgrims who sit or stand wedged round it.
1871. Carlyle, in Mrs. Carlyle’s Lett. (1863), I. 8. The 2,000 human figures, wedged in the huge room into one dark mass, were singular to look down upon.
5. intr. a. To become fixed or jammed tight by (or as by) the operation of a wedge.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 55. Which all wedge together and intersect one another both with equal and unequal Angles.
1893. Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 197/2. The men started carefully, holding the saw quite true that later it might not wedge.
b. To force one’s way in. rare.
1616. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, III. iii. 26. This comes of … haunting The Globes, and Mermaides! wedging in with Lords, Still at the table!
c. To wedge their way, to fly in a wedge-shaped formation, tapering to the front or van. poet.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 426. Part loosly wing the Region, part more wise In common, rang’d in figure wedge thir way.
