subs. (old cant).—1. Generic for money: spec. silver, money or plate: see RHINO (GROSE). Hence WEDGE-FEEDER = a silver spoon; WEDGE-LOBB = a silver snuff-box; WEDGE-YACK = a silver watch; WEDGE-HUNTER = a thief, spec. one devoting attention to silver plate, watches, etc.; TO FLASH THE WEDGE = to FENCE (q.v.) the SWAG (q.v.).
1832. P. EGAN, Book of Sports, xvii. 263. For he valued neither Cove nor Swell, for he had WEDGE snug in his die.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard [1889], 70. Near to these hopeful youths sat a fence, or receiver, bargaining with a clouter, or pickpocket, for a suit—or, to speak in more intelligible language, a watch and seals, two cloaks, commonly called watchcases, and a WEDGELOBB.
1879. J. W. HORSLEY, Jottings from Jail [Macmillan’s Magazine, xl. 500]. They told me all about the WEDGE, how I should know it by the ramp.
1891. F. W. CAREW, No. 747. being the Autobiography of a Gipsy, 417. Old Father Nat swore I must’er been scammered and ’ad made a mistake in samplin’ the WEDGE.
2. (Cambridge University).—The last in the classical TRIPOS (q.v.) list: also WOODEN WEDGE: in 1824, on the publication of the first list the position was occupied by a T. H. Wedgewood.
TO KNOCK OUT THE WEDGES, verb. phr. (American).—To desert, ‘leave in the LURCH’ (q.v.), abandon one in a difficulty.
THE THIN (or SMALL) END OF THE WEDGE, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A first move (or a beginning), seemingly trivial, but calculated to lead to important results, ‘a finger in the pie,’ a manœuvre, shift, artifice.
