1. To be stuck, incapable of proceeding without help. This is
different from having crashed. If the system has crashed, it
has become totally non-functioning. If the system is wedged,
it is trying to do something but cannot make progress; it may
be capable of doing a few things, but not be fully
operational. For example, a process may become wedged if it
deadlocks with another (but not all instances of wedging are
refers to humans suffering misconceptions. "He's totally
wedged - he's convinced that he can levitate through
meditation." 3. [Unix] Specifically used to describe the
state of a TTY left in a losing state by abort of a
screen-oriented program or one that has messed with the line
discipline in some obscure way.
There is some dispute over the origin of this term. It is
usually thought to derive from a common description of
recto-cranial inversion; however, it may actually have
originated with older "hot-press" printing technology in which
physical type elements were locked into type frames with
wedges driven in by mallets. Once this had been done, no
changes in the typesetting for that page could be made.