Wedge vs Jam - What's the difference?

As a noun wedge

is one of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, securing, or levering () or wedge can be (uk|cambridge university|slang) the person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos.

As a verb wedge

is to support or secure using a wedge.

As a symbol jam is

the iso 3166-1 three-letter (alpha-3) code for jamaica.

wedge

English

Etymology 1

(etyl)

Noun

(en noun)

One of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, securing, or levering ().

Stick a wedge under the door, will you? It keeps blowing shut.

A piece (of food etc.) having this shape.

Can you cut me a wedge of cheese?

(geometry) A five-sided polyhedron with a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.

(figurative) Something that creates a division, gap or distance between things.

* 2013 September 28, , " London Is Special, but Not That Special," New York Times (retrieved 28 September 2013):

It is one of the ironies of capital cities that each acts as a symbol of its nation, and yet few are even remotely representative of it. London has always set itself apart from the rest of Britain — but political, economic and social trends are conspiring to drive that wedge deeper.

(archaic) A flank of cavalry acting to split some portion of an opposing army, charging in an inverted V formation.

(golf) A type of iron club used for short, high trajectories.

A group of geese or swans when they are in flight in a V formation.

(in the plural) Wedge-heeled shoes.

(colloquial, British) A quantity of money.

I made a big fat wedge from that job.

(typography, US) =

* 1982 , Thomas Pyles and John Algeo, The Origins and Development of the English Language (3rd ed.), page 49

The wedge is used in Czech and is illustrated by the Czech name for the diacritic, ha?ek .

* 1996 , and William A. Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide (2nd ed.), page xxvi

The tilde and the circumflex have a place in the ASCII scheme but the wedge and the umlaut do not.

* 1999 , Florian Coulmas, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems , page 193, “há?ek”

The há?ek or ‘wedge'’ is a diacritic commonly used in Slavic orthographies. As a tone mark the ' wedge is used iconically for a falling-rising tone as in Chinese Pinyin.

(phonetics) The (l) character , which denotes an .

* 1996 , and William A. Ladusaw, Phonetic Symbol Guide (2nd ed.), page 19

Turned V is referred to as “Wedge ” by some phoneticians, but this seems inadvisable to us, because the ha?ek accent (?) is also called that in names like Wedge C for (?).

(label) The symbol , denoting a meet (infimum) operation or logical conjunction.

Synonyms

* (group of geese) skein * (l)

Verb

To support or secure using a wedge.

I wedged open the window with a screwdriver.

* 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1

"Did he take his bottle well?" Mrs. Flanders whispered, and Rebecca nodded and went to the cot and turned down the quilt, and Mrs. Flanders bent over and looked anxiously at the baby, asleep, but frowning. The window shook, and Rebecca stole like a cat and wedged it.

To force into a narrow gap.

He had wedged the package between the wall and the back of the sofa.

To work wet clay by cutting or kneading for the purpose of homogenizing the mass and expelling air bubbles.

Derived terms

* wedge issue * wedge politics * wedgie

Etymology 2

From Wedgewood, surname of the person who occupied this position on the first list of 1828.

Noun

(en noun)

(UK, Cambridge University, slang) The person whose name stands lowest on the list of the classical tripos.

* 1873 , Charles Astor Bristed, Five Years in an English University

The last man is called the Wedge , corresponding to the Spoon in Mathematics.

Synonyms

* wooden wedge

jam

English

, a type of jam, spread on a piece of bread

Etymology 1

Noun

A sweet mixture of fruit boiled with sugar and allowed to congeal. Often spread on bread or toast or used in jam tarts.

(countable) A difficult situation.

I’m in a jam right now. Can you help me out?

* 1975 , (Bob Dylan), (Tangled Up in Blue)

She was married when we first met

Soon to be divorced

I helped her out of a jam , I guess

But I used a little too much force.

(countable) Blockage, congestion.

A traffic jam caused us to miss the game's first period.

a jam of logs in a river

An informal, impromptu performance or rehearsal.

(countable, baseball) A difficult situation for a pitcher or defending team.

He's in a jam now, having walked the bases loaded with the cleanup hitter coming to bat.

(countable, basketball) A forceful dunk.

(countable, roller derby) A play during which points can be scored.

Toughie scored four points in that jam .

(climbing, countable) Any of several maneuvers requiring wedging of an extremity into a tight space.

I used a whole series of fist and foot jams in that crack.

(UK) luck.

He's got more jam than Waitrose.

(mining)

Synonyms

* (sweet mixture of fruit) conserve, (US) jelly, preserve * See also

Derived terms

* jamjar * jammy * jam band * jam roly poly * jam sandwich * jam session * jam tart * jam tomorrow * log jam * Murrumbidgee jam * pearl jam * power jam * toe jam * traffic jam * want jam on it * climbing: ** hand jam ** finger jam ** fist jam ** foot jam ** pinkie jam ** ring jam ** thumb-down jam

Verb

(jamm)

To get something stuck in a confined space.

My foot got jammed in a gap between the rocks.

Her poor little baby toe got jammed in the door.

I jammed the top knuckle of my ring finger.

To brusquely force something into a space; cram, squeeze.

They temporarily stopped the gas tank leak by jamming a piece of taffy into the hole.

The rush-hour train was jammed with commuters.

To cause congestion or blockage. Often used with "up"

A single accident can jam the roads for hours.

To block or confuse a broadcast signal.

(baseball) To throw a pitch at or near the batter's hands.

Jones was jammed by the pitch.

(music) To play music (especially improvisation as a group, or an informal unrehearsed session).

To injure a finger or toe by sudden compression of the digit's tip.

When he tripped on the step he jammed his toe.

(roller derby) To attempt to score points.

Toughie jammed four times in the second period.

(nautical) To bring (a vessel) so close to the wind that half her upper sails are laid aback.

Synonyms

* ram

Derived terms

* (to squeeze into a small space) jam-pack * jammer

Etymology 2

(etyl) or (etyl), meaning "garment, robe"; related to pajamas.

Noun

(en noun)

(dated) A kind of frock for children.

English ergative verbs ----