adv. [f. WEDGE sb. + -WISE.] After the manner, in the form, of a wedge.
1548. Elyot’s Dict., Cuneatim, wedgewyse, by lyttell bandes or companies, imbattayled wedgewise.
1600. Holland, Livy, II. l. 79. They … with a pointed battaile wedgewise pierced through and made themselves passage. Ibid. (1610), Camden’s Brit., I. 456. It lieth Wedg-wise upon the sea.
1657. R. Carpenter, Astrol., 28. That these words may be understood to the bottom, and withstand all Objections; and that no opposition may wedge-wise enter upon them.
1703. Neve City & C. Purchaser, 10. Bricks moulded … Wedge-wise, broader above, than they are below.
1852. De Morgan, in Graves, Life Sir W. R. Hamilton (1889), III. 415. Nothing but two sheets of thin pasteboard … with three bits of book-covering cloth … pasted on, so as to open out wedgewise.
1900. M. Hewlett, Richard Yea-and-Nay, II. ix. Inside the town gate they took up close order, wedgewise, linked and riveted.
