Forms: 1 waecg, wecg, wegge, (4 weeg), 4–7 wegge, (5 vegge, weegge, wegghe), 5–6 weg(e, 5–7 wagge, 6 wadge, wegg, 7 wedg, 3– wedge. Pl. 6 wedgies, Sc. vagis, wagis. [Com. Teut. (not found in Gothic): OE. węcg masc. corresponds to OS. weggi wedge (MLG. wegge, wigge, LG. wegge wedge, wedge-shaped cake), MDu. wegge, wigge (mod.Du. wegge fem., wedge-shaped cake, wig fem., wedge), OHG. weggi, wecki, wedge (MHG. wegge, wecke, wedge, wedge-shaped cake; mod.G. dial. weck, wecken masc., wedge, wedge-shaped cake), ON. vegg-r wedge (Norw. vegg, Da. vægge, MSw. vägge, vigge, Sw. vigg, vigge):—OTeut. *waʓjo-z.
The affinities of the word are somewhat uncertain. Some scholars regard it as cognate with OHG. waganso (see wagense in Grimm D. Wb.), ON., Norw. vangne, Gr. ὀφνίς (Hesychius) ploughshare, OPrussian wagni-s coulter, Lith. vágis pin, plug, f. Indogermanic root *woghn. (Teut. *waʓ-); cf. Skr. vāh- ? to force.
The LG. and Du. form with i for e (whence perh. the Sw. form and the Eng. WIG sb.1, a kind of cake) is not easy to account for. It may be due to a special sound-change in some local dialect; the hypothesis that it represents an ablaut-variant (OTeut. *weʓjo-z) is inadmissible.]
1. A piece of wood, metal or other hard material, thick at one end and tapering to a thin edge at the other; chiefly used as a tool operated by percussion (or, less frequently, pressure) applied to the thick end, for splitting wood, stone, etc., forcing apart contiguous objects, dilating a fissure or cavity, tightening or securing some part of a structure, raising a heavy body, and other similar purposes. Hence, in Mechanics, the type of simple machine of which the wedge proper is an example, and which includes also knives, chisels, and cutting and piercing instruments in general; formerly reckoned separately among the ‘mechanical powers,’ but now regarded as a variety of the inclined plane.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), C 970, Cuneus, waecg.
a. 1050. Liber Scintill., xxvii. (1889), 103. Yfele treowes on oste yfel næʓel oððe wecg on to fæstniʓenne ys.
a. 1225. J. de Garlande, in Wright, Voc. (1857), 137. Et cum cuneis [glossed wedgys] et cavillis.
1357. in Pipe Roll 32 Edw. III., m. 34/2. ij. Wegges ferri.
c. 1391. Chaucer, Astrol., I. xiv. 4. Thorw wich pyn ther goth a litel wegge which þat is cleped the hors, þat streyneth alle thise parties to hepe.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxv. 235. Goode wegges schall we take þis tyde, and feste þe foote [of the cross]. Ibid., 242. Gyffe me þis wegge, I schall it in dryue.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 81/2. Clyte, or clote, or vegge, cuneus.
1474[?]. Stonor Papers (Camden), I. 147. j weegge of yron.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 3. The ploughfote is a lyttell pece of wodde, with a croked ende set before in a morteys in the ploughe-beame, sette fast with wedges, to dryue vppe and downe.
1542. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 184. To … reforme and mend the artillery, and to mak carttis, boolis, vagis, and all vder necessaris belangand thairto.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 369. The marble stone … they breake and cleaue with wedgies of iren.
1569. Spenser, Theat., Sonets, v. I heard the tronke to grone vnder the wedge.
1613. in Trans. Exeter Dioc. Archit. Soc., Ser. II. (1867), I. 395. For 5 peire of iron wegges to make faste the brasses, xij d.
1648. Wilkins, Math. Magic, I. viii. 52. The fift Mechanicall faculty is the Wedge, which is a known instrument, commonly used in the Cleaving of wood.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, VII. 711. Tyrrheus … left his Wedge within the cloven Oak.
1711. Milit. & Sea Dict., II. (ed. 4), Wedges are us’d to make fast the Mast in the Partners. They also put a Wedge into the Heels of the Top-Masts, to bear them upon the Tressel-Trees.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Wedge, Cuneus, in Mechanicks, the last of the five Powers or simple Machines…. To the Wedge may be refer’d all Edge-Tools, and Instruments which have a sharp Point, in order to cut, cleave, slit, chop, pierce, bore, or the like; as Knives, Hatchets, Swords, Bodkins, &c.
1773. W. Emerson, Princ. Mech. (ed. 3), 44. The sharper the wedge, or the more acute its angle, the easier it will divide any thing or overcome any resistance.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 43. Forth goes the woodman … To wield the axe And drive the wedge in yonder forest drear.
a. 1790. W. Newton, trans. Vitruvius, X. xviii. (1791), 266. The distended ropes … are then confined at the holes with wedges, that they may not slip.
1842. Min. Proc. Inst. Civil Engin., II. 73. The wedges employed to secure the rails in the chairs are similarly compressed.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Wedge,… a small fastening for a door or window.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Setting-up, raising a ship from her blocks, shores, &c. by wedges driven between the heels of the shore and the dock foundation.
1888. W. E. Nicholson, Gloss. Terms Coal Trade (E.D.D.), Wedge, a sharp or flat pointed iron or steel, used for splitting and breaking coal or stone.
1923. My Magazine, Jan., 22. Wedge. A small piece of wood placed under the heel of a living model for support. It is seen in statues.
b. Grafting. (a) A peg to keep the cleft open. (b) The tongue or tapered end of a scion or stock.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 136. Thou muste haue … a mallet, to dryue the knyfe and thy wedge in-to the tree.
1653. Austen, Fruit-Trees, 48. Being cloven with the knife, and a wedge of Box, or other hard wood knockt in, to keep it open, then prepare the Graft [etc.].
1832. Planting, 30, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. The upper division of the scion made by the slit, termed the tongue or wedge, is then inserted into the cleft of the stock.
c. The movable slip of wood, tapered on one side, by means of which the blade of a carpenter’s plane is adjusted and fastened in the stock.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., iv. 64. This knocking on the Britch [of a plane] raises the Iron, so it also raises and loosens the wedge: therefore … whenever you knock upon the Britch, you must also knock upon the wedge, to fasten the Iron again.
d. Arch. A voussoir.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 73 b. The last wedge, which is called the key-stone, shou’d be cut according to the lines of the other wedges, but left a small matter bigger at the top, so that it may … drive the lower wedges closer together.
a. 1790. W. Newton, trans. Vitruvius, VI. xi. (1791), 147. In edifices which are built with piers and arches of wedges with the joints tending to their centers, the extreme piers are to be made of a greater breadth, that they may resist the force when the wedges, pressed by the weight of the walls, and impelling toward the center, thrust against the abutments.
1849. Freeman, Archit., 20. We might conceive an arch whose voussoirs should be wedges, not of stone … but of wood.
2. fig. and in fig. context.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 278. Take an other unvanquishable argument such as all ye Heretiques wedges with all their Beatelles and malles cannot beat abroad.
c. 1620. A. Hume, Brit. Tongue (1865), 13. Now I am cum to a knot that I have noe wedg to cleave.
1645. Fuller, Good Th. in Bad Times, II. vi. The same wedge wil serve to cleave the former difficulty.
1704. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1711), 78. I hope these Reflections will not be misinterpreted … as a Wedge to make way for any Design of mine.
1841. Calhoun, Sp., Wks. 1861, IV. 11. This bill is the entering wedge for all the measures of the session.
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, xxvii. 267. Just as he had fixed on the astute question which was to drive the first wedge into the mystery, Guy turned … and met him full.
1909. G. A. T. Middleton, Eng. Ch. Archit., i. 17. England became a wedge of paganism driven in as it were between the Christianity of the Continent … and the Christianity of Ireland.
1913. R. Lucas, Ld. North, xiv. II. 168. Shelburne … perceived that there was room for a wedge to be driven in between the French and the Americans.
b. Phr. The thin (little or small) end of the wedge, a small beginning that it is hoped or feared may lead to something greater. Also attrib.
1858. Trollope, Dr. Thorne, xxxi. (Chapter-heading) The Small End of the Wedge. Ibid. We have all heard of the little end of the wedge…. That pill had been the little end of Lady Arabella’s wedge. Up to that period she had been struggling in vain to make a severance between her husband and her enemy [the docto].
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), II. x. 460. The rule [of Chrodegang] was but the small end of the wedge.
1884. Graphic, 20 Dec., 639/3. Cremation advocates have managed to get in the thin end of the wedge in France.
attrib. 1896. Daily News, 21 Feb., 5/1. How many reforms have the Tories resisted with the thin-end-of-the-wedge argument.
3. An ingot of gold, silver, etc. ? Obs.
Presumably so called because the ordinary form of an ingot was that of a wedge; cf. Heb. lāšōn, lit. ‘tongue,’ used in the same sense; but in the Eng. use of the word there appears to be no evidence of any reference to shape. The OE. wecg is in translations of Matt. xvii. 27. used for ‘piece of money’ (rendering L. stater).
c. 900. Bæda’s Hist., I. i. (1890), 26. Berende on wecga orum ares & isernes, leades & seolfres.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 60. Hi behwyrfdon heora are … on sumum ʓyldenum wecge, and ðone on sæ awurpan.
c. 1100. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 141/34. Metallum, ælces kynnes wecg vel ora oððe clyna.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 49. Þei wilen not touche an halpeny or ferþing wiþ þe coyn … of the kyng,… a weeg of siluer or a cuppe of gold þei wolen handil faste.
1436. Libel Eng. Policy, in Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 171. Also Pruse mene make here aventure Of plate of sylvere, of wegges gode and sure In grete plente.
c. 1450. Capgrave, St. Aug. (1910), 48. He … made þe vesseles of syluyr whech longed on-to þe cherch to be molten, and þe weggis þerof be sold and departed to por men.
1535. Coverdale, Job xxviii. 16. No wedges of gold of Ophir.
1560. Bible (Geneva), Josh. vii. 21. Two hundreth shekels of siluer and a wedge of golde of fyftie shekels weight. [So 1611 (margin, Heb. tunge)].
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 403/1. Aurum purum, infectum,… gold vnwrought, and in the wedge.
1613. [see INGOT 1].
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 140. Fifty thousand Talents of vncoyned Gold, besides siluer wedges.
1694. F. Bragge, Disc. Parables, V. 194. ’Tis like a child’s slighting a wedge of gold, and rather pursuing an empty bubble because it shines and glitters.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 196. I found there … some small Bars or Wedges of Gold.
b. Cant. Silver, whether money or plate.
1725. New Cant. Dict., Wedge, Plate, or Silver or Gold Moveables and Trinkets: Also Money.
1812. Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 209. A convenient fencing repository, from the lady’s tyke to the nobleman’s wedge.
1821. Life D. Haggart (ed. 2), 98. I had some wedge planked in a garret in North Leith…. I was anxious to convert it into blunt.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 29 May, 2/1. Between two and three I turns over a pawnbroker’s shop, and gets safe away with a lot of wedge—that’s silver plate.
attrib. 1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v. Wedge, A wedge-feeder, a silver-spoon.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, II. xiv. A wedge-lobb, otherwise known as a silver snuff-box.
4. A lump or cake of any solid substance.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. 146 b. The Creame … is … put into a vessell … wherin with often beating and moouing up and downe, they so shake the milke, as they seuer the thinnest part of from the thicke, which at the fyrst gather together in little crombles, and after with the continuance of the violent moouing commeth to a whole wedge, or cake [L. in massam cogatur].
1728. E. S[mith], Compleat Housew. (ed. 2), 57. When you have churned, wash your Butter … and beat it well…; let it stand in a Wedge … till the next morning.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Berkeley, I. iv. 74. Different kinds of rude money…; skins in one country, shells in another, and wedges of salt in a third.
5. transf. a. A formation of troops tapering to the front or van, in order to cleave a way through an opposing force. (Orig. after L. cuneus; cf. wedge-battle in 10.) Now more widely of a body of people.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, III. xii. § 7. 152. Taking a choise Companie of the most able men, whom he cast into the forme of a Wedge, or Diamond.
1615. H. Peacham, Relat. Affairs Cleve & Gulick, C 2 b. The Horse … were showne in the field in order of fight: their manner was in forme of a Pile or wedge, called of the old Romans, Cuneus.
1671. Milton, P. R., III. 309. See how in warlike muster they appear, In Rhombs and wedges, and half moons, and wings.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, XII. 842. One Soul inspiring all, Form’d in a Wedge, the Foot approach the Wall.
1802. C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v.
1821. Shelley, Hellas, 377. Thrice their keen wedge of battle pierced our lines.
1887. Times (weekly ed.), 21 Oct., 2/1. A wedge of 15 or 18 policemen were endeavouring to be driven into that meeting.
1900. M. Hewlett, Richard Yea-and-Nay, II. ix. The wedge held firm; red work for axe and swords while it lasted.
1913. J. H. Morrison, On Trail of Pioneers, i. 1. Every entrance is blocked, and down every gangway a long wedge of standing people has been driven deep into the heart of the house.
b. The Ｖ-shaped formation adopted by a number of geese or other wildfowl when flying.
[1725. Watts, Logic, II. ii. § 1. The wild Geese flew over the Thames in the Form of a Wedge.]
1869. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, xxix. So like half a wedge of wildfowl, to and fro we swept the field.
1889. Daily News, 11 Jan., 5/3. There drifts over the moor a wedge of clangorous geese, making for the Channel.
c. gen. Something in the form of a wedge; a wedge-shaped part or piece of anything.
1821. Shelley, Adonais, l. One keen pyramid with wedge sublime, Pavilioning the dust of him who planned This refuge for his memory.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Making a Night of it. A pot of the real draught stout, and … cushions of bread, and wedges of cheese.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xii. 89. The glacier here … was cut up into thin wedges.
1889. H. Saunders, Man. Brit. Birds, 660. The three outer primaries are of a dusky-black which becomes paler towards the edges of the inner webs, though there is no grey ‘wedge.’
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 430. It is better, instead of removing such a kidney, to treat each focus independently by scraping or by the excision of a wedge.
d. A strip of land narrowing to a point.
[1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Wedge, a Sand so called, being broad at the West end, and sharp at the East end, and lies on the North side of the Marget Sands.]
1867. Murchison, Siluria, xvii. (ed. 4), 412. The Coal-field … thins out … so much that to the west of Béthune it has merely become a narrow wedge.
1918. Blackw. Mag., June, 771/2. The white wedge of Kildin Island is now on our port bow.
e. In an organ (see quot.).
1852. Seidel, Organ, 78. The wedge of the mouth … is the interval between the under lip and the language.
f. Meteorol. A narrow wedge-shaped area of high pressure between two adjacent cyclonic systems; also the representation of this on a weather-chart.
1887. R. Abercromby, Weather, ii. 26. Between the two cyclones the isobar of 29·9 ins. projects upwards, like a wedge or an inverted letter V., but this time encloses high pressure; this shape of lines is called a ‘wedge.’
g. The wedge-shaped stroke in cuneiform characters. Also attrib.
1821. Rich, Babylon & P. (1839), 249. The wedges in the third [kind of inscription] cross each other.
1883. G. Evans, Ess. Assyriol., 6. The kind of writing in the copies, with the wedge as its fundamental element, was to them perfectly new.
1881. Tylor, Anthrop., i. 11. Deciphered from the wedge-characters of Nineveh.
1915. Pinches, in Proc. Soc. Bibl. Archæol., XXXVII. 90. We have a direct testimony to the practice outside the wedge-inscriptions.
h. Short for wedge-shell (see 10).
1815. S. Brookes, Introd. Conchol., 157. Wedge, Donax.
6. Geom. a. A triangular prism. b. A simple solid formed by cutting a triangular prism by any two planes.
1710. J. Clarke, trans. Rohault’s Nat. Philos. (1729), I. 87. Let ABC represent a Wedge; and let CG be perpendicular to AB.
1829. Nat. Philos. Mech., II. x. 43 (U.K.S.). A Wedge is a solid figure, which is called in geometry a triangular prism.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 24/2. The wedge being merely the frustum of a triangular prism, we have at once [etc.].
1895. A. Lodge, Mensuration, 7. If from a triangular prism of indefinite length, a piece is cut off by two transverse planes which are not parallel, this piece is called a wedge.
7. Her. A charge consisting of an isosceles triangle with a very acute angle at its vertex.
1716. S. Kent, Gramm. Her., Proctor of Norfolk; He beareth Or, three Wedges Sable.
1780. Edmondson, Her., II. Alph. Arms, Isam or Isham. Vert, three wedges ar.
1847. W. S. Evans, Gramm. Her., 151. The Nail (sometimes called the Passion-nail) … must not be confounded with the Wedge, which is of course wider at the top, and in shape something like a pile.
8. Cambridge University. The (wooden) wedge: the student last in the classical tripos list.
This counterpart to the older ‘wooden spoon’ (see WOODEN a.), designating the last man in the mathematical tripos, was suggested by the fact that in the first classical tripos (1824), the last man was Wedgwood of Christ’s College, afterwards famous as an English etymologist.
1852. Bristed, Five Yrs. Eng. Univ. (ed. 2), 253. Of the remainder, five were Wranglers, four of these Double men, and a fifth a favorite for the Wedge…. The last man is called the Wedge, corresponding to the Spoon in Mathematics.
9. Combinations, chiefly similative, as wedge-block, -bolt, -fashion, -form, -head, -shape, -stone, -wad; wedge-billed, -sided adjs.
1836. E. Stanley, Fam. Hist. Birds, xiii. (1845), 289. Tribe 1. Cuneirostral (*Wedge-Billed).
1868. Rep. to Govt. U.S. Munitions of War, 55. The breech is opened and closed by a *wedge-block worked by a hinged lever.
1892. Greener, Breech-Loader, 22. A round steel *wedge-bolt.
1665. J. Webb, Stone-Heng, 190. These [stones] also were either of a *Wedge fashion, or wedged under the Great One.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. Theory, 295. This *wedge-form of the whinstone masses.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 7 June, 4/2. A disc on which black and white wedge-forms alternated.
1880. Encycl. Brit., XIII. 343/1. These [bars of steel] are welded together by forging to *wedge-heads, tying together with wire [etc.].
1812. Sir J. Sinclair, Syst. Husb. Scot., I. 43. The white shorn [hedge] … when properly trained, and occasionally cut over, or dressed in the *wedge-shape,… will last for ages.
1895. Hoffman, Begin. Writing, 141. When horses were intended to be thus noted, the end of the stick would be sharpened into a wedge-shape, resembling the pointed ear of a horse.
1852. Mechanics’ Mag., 10 July, 23. When taper or *‘wedge-sided’ type is employed, the cylinder need not be more in circumference than the size of the sheet of paper.
1854. Ct. E. de Warren, trans. De Saulcy’s Round Dead Sea, II. 113. The voussoir, or early *wedge-stone.
1879. Man. Artill. Exerc., 53. *Wedge wads … consist of two wooden wedges connected by a piece of cane…. These wads are to be rammed home separately after the projectiles.
10. Special comb.: † wedge-battle = sense 5 a; wedge-bill, a bird with a wedge-shaped bill, as (a) the Australian Sphenostoma cristatum; (b) a S. American humming-bird of the genus Schistes; wedge-bone, † (a) the sphenoid bone; (b) a small bone sometimes occurring in lizards on the undersurface of the spinal column at the junction of a pair of vertebræ; wedge-coral (see quot.); wedge-draining, a mode of draining land, somewhat similar to plug-draining; wedge-fern, a fossil fern of the genus Sphenopteris; wedge-fid Naut. (see quot.); wedge-form, -formed adjs. = WEDGE-SHAPED; wedge-grafting (see quots.); wedge-gun, a field-gun in which a wedge is used in closing the breech; wedge-leaf fern = wedge-fern; wedge-micrometer, a graduated wedge-shaped piece of metal or glass, to be thrust between two fixed points to determine their distance apart; wedge-photometer Astr., an instrument consisting of a wedge of glass, used for measuring the comparative brightness of stars; wedge-press, a press used for extracting oil from seeds; wedge-shell, a marine bivalve, belonging to Donax or allied genera; wedge-tailed a., having a wedge-shaped tail; used spec. in the names of birds, as the wedge-tailed eagle (Uroaetus audax) of Australia, and the wedge-tailed gull, Rhodostethia rosea.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, 78. Out of a square of men hath bin reduced a triangle of *wedge battell in perfect order to fight.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 273. The wedge battell of the Christians could not of the Turks be broken.
1848. Gould, Birds of Australia, III. Pl. 17. Crested *Wedge-bill. Ibid. (1861), Trochil., IV. PL. 219. Schistes personatus,… Masked Wedge-bill. Ibid., Pl. 220. White-throated Wedge bill.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 442. Sphenoides or the *Wedge-bone.
1871. Huxley, Anat. Vert., v. 217. Such a … sub-vertebral wedge-bone is commonly developed beneath and between the odontoid bone and the body of the second vertebra.
1860. Gosse, Actinol. Brit., 324. The Smooth-ribbed *Wedge-coral. Sphenotrochus Macandrewanus. Ibid., 326. The Knotted Wedge-coral. Sphenotrochus Wrightii.
1830. Cumb. Farm Rep., 67, in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb., III. The *wedge or brick draining … is ceriainly not so well known among practical farmers as its merits deserve.
1867. W. W. Smyth, Coal & Coal-mining, 36. Sphenopteris (*wedge-fern).
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Wedge-fids, for top and top-gallant masts; in two parts, lifting by shores and sett-wedges.
1822. J. Parkinson, Outl. Oryctol., 221. Ovatedly *wedge-form.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 15. In many plants the wedge-form plates … appear as an irregular cellular tissue.
1822. J. Parkinson, Outl. Oryctol., 188. A longitudinal, *wedge-formed, equivalved bivalve.
1861. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), III. 265. These packets cohere into many wedge-formed masses in Orchis.
1838. W. Barron, in Gardener’s Mag., XIV. 80. The grafting of the Cedrus Deodara on the Cedar of Lebanon … is accomplished by what I call *wedge-grafting.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., § 657. Wedge-grafting … is a modification of side-grafting. Ibid., § 664. Herbaceous wedge-grafting is effected by paring the scion into a wedge shape, and inserting it into a corresponding slit in the stock.
1876. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict. (ed. 3), *Wedge Gun.
1851. Mantell, Petrif., 32. The other characteristic Wealden plant is the Sphenopteris (S. Mantelli), or *wedge-leaf fern.
1891. Century Dict., s.v. Micrometer, *Wedge-micrometer.
1883. C. Pritchard, in Mem. R. Astron. Soc., XLVII. 394. The question, then, arises as to the applicability of the *wedge-photometer to the measurement of the magnitude … of such stars.
1844. Penny Mag., Sept., 381. The triturated seeds were put into woollen bags which were wrapped up in hair-cloths, and then submitted to the *wedge-press.
1820. Wodarch, Introd. Conchol., 23. Donax.—*Wedge-shell.
1848. Gould, Birds of Australia, I. Pl. 1. *Wedge-tailed Eagle.
1872. Coues, Key N. Amer. Birds, 316. Wedge-tailed, or Ross’ Rosy Gull.
1898. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Canvas Town Rom., 73. The great wedge-tailed Eagle soaring above them.
