n. [ AS. wedd; akin to OFries. wed, OD. wedde, OHG, wetti, G. wette a wager, Icel. veð a pledge, Sw. vad a wager, an appeal, Goth. wadi a pledge, Lith. vadůti to redeem (a pledge), LL. vadium, L. vas, vadis, bail, security, vadimonium security, and Gr. &unr_;, &unr_; a prize. Cf. Athlete, Gage a pledge, Wage. ] A pledge; a pawn. [ Obs. ] Gower. Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let him be ware, his neck lieth to wed [ i. e., for a security ]. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. Wedded; p. p. Wedded or Wed; p. pr. & vb. n. Wedding. ] [ OE. wedden, AS. weddian to covenant, promise, to wed, marry; akin to OFries. weddia to promise, D. wedden to wager, to bet, G. wetten, Icel. veðja, Dan. vedde, Sw. vädja to appeal, Goth. gawadjōn to betroth. See Wed, n. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To take for husband or for wife by a formal ceremony; to marry; to espouse. [ 1913 Webster ]

With this ring I thee wed. Bk. of Com. Prayer. [ 1913 Webster ]

I saw thee first, and wedded thee. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To join in marriage; to give in wedlock. [ 1913 Webster ]

And Adam, wedded to another Eve,
Shall live with her. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Fig.: To unite as if by the affections or the bond of marriage; to attach firmly or indissolubly. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou art wedded to calamity. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Men are wedded to their lusts. Tillotson. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Flowers ] are wedded thus, like beauty to old age. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To take to one's self and support; to espouse. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

They positively and concernedly wedded his cause. Clarendon. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To contact matrimony; to marry. “When I shall wed.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. pl. (Ethnol.) See Veddahs. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Joined in wedlock; married. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let w&unr_;alth, let honor, wait the wedded dame. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Of or pertaining to wedlock, or marriage. “Wedded love.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Wether. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. wedding. ] Nuptial ceremony; nuptial festivities; marriage; nuptials. [ 1913 Webster ]

Simple and brief was the wedding, as that of Ruth and of Boaz. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Certain anniversaries of an unbroken marriage have received fanciful, and more or less appropriate, names. Thus, the fifth anniversary is called the wooden wedding; the tenth, the tin wedding; the fifteenth, the crystal wedding; the twentieth, the china wedding; the twenty-fifth, the silver wedding; the fiftieth, the golden wedding; the sixtieth, the diamond wedding. These anniversaries are often celebrated by appropriate presents of wood, tin, china, silver, gold, etc., given by friends. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Wedding is often used adjectively; as, wedding cake, wedding cards, wedding clothes, wedding day, wedding feast, wedding guest, wedding ring, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let her beauty be her wedding dower. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Wedding favor, a marriage favor. See under Marriage. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Weather. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. wegge, AS. wecg; akin to D. wig, wigge, OHG. wecki, G. weck a (wedge-shaped) loaf, Icel. veggr, Dan. vægge, Sw. vigg, and probably to Lith. vagis a peg. Cf. Wigg. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A piece of metal, or other hard material, thick at one end, and tapering to a thin edge at the other, used in splitting wood, rocks, etc., in raising heavy bodies, and the like. It is one of the six elementary machines called the mechanical powers. See Illust. of Mechanical powers, under Mechanical. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Geom.) A solid of five sides, having a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A mass of metal, especially when of a wedgelike form. “Wedges of gold.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Anything in the form of a wedge, as a body of troops drawn up in such a form. [ 1913 Webster ]

In warlike muster they appear,
In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos; -- so called after a person (Wedgewood) who occupied this position on the first list of 1828. [ Cant, Cambridge Univ., Eng. ] C. A. Bristed. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Golf) A golf club having an iron head with the face nearly horizontal, used for lofting the golf ball at a high angle, as when hitting the ball out of a sand trap or the rough. [ PJC ]

Fox wedge. (Mach. & Carpentry) See under Fox. --
Spherical wedge (Geom.), the portion of a sphere included between two planes which intersect in a diameter. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Wedged p. pr. & vb. n. Wedging. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To cleave or separate with a wedge or wedges, or as with a wedge; to rive. “My heart, as wedged with a sigh, would rive in twain.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To force or drive as a wedge is driven. [ 1913 Webster ]

Among the crowd in the abbey where a finger
Could not be wedged in more. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

He 's just the sort of man to wedge himself into a snug berth. Mrs. J. H. Ewing. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To force by crowding and pushing as a wedge does; as, to wedge one's way. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To press closely; to fix, or make fast, in the manner of a wedge that is driven into something. [ 1913 Webster ]

Wedged in the rocky shoals, and sticking fast. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To fasten with a wedge, or with wedges; as, to wedge a scythe on the snath; to wedge a rail or a piece of timber in its place. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Pottery) To cut, as clay, into wedgelike masses, and work by dashing together, in order to expel air bubbles, etc. Tomlinson. [ 1913 Webster ]