vbl. sb. [f. WEDGE v.1 and sb. + -ING1.]
1. The action of driving in a wedge or wedges, or of fixing or cleaving by this means; the condition of being thus fixed.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., v. 98. They drive a Wedge so far in the kerf as they dare … and so provide the Saw a freer and easier passage through the Stuff: This Wedging they continue so oft as they find occasion.
1825, 1842. Foxtail wedging [see FOXTAIL 4].
1893. Tuckey, trans. Hatschek’s Amphioxus, 140. We saw the oval notochord transverse section still wedged in between the cells of the mesenteron…. In the region of the later segments we still find the former condition of the wedging.
b. concr. A wedge-shaped piece or pieces of some hard material driven in for tightening or securing.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 337. The wheels are fixed on the shaft by means of a wedging of hard wood, driven in all round.
2. Geol. The jutting out or flaking off (of rock, etc.), as if by the operation of a wedge.
1819. J. Forbes, Geol. Land’s-End District (1822), 21. At one point of this natural section, an instructive example of what is called by geologists the wedging out of a bed, is observable.
1882. A. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., VII. 928. Their naked precipices are kept bare and steep by the wedging off of successive slices of rock along lines of joint.
3. Sport. (See quot.)
1897. Encycl. Sport, I. 583. Spraint, the excrement of the otter; also called wedging.
4. attrib., as wedging joint; wedging crib, curb Mining (see CRIB sb. 12 and CURB sb. 10).
1839. Ure, Dict. Art, 972. Three kinds of cribs are employed; called wedging, spiking, and main cribs. Ibid., 973. The flange for the wedging joint is best turned inwards.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Wedging-curb or Wedging-crib, Eng.
