wedged adj.
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 deadlocks). See also gronk, locked
up, hosed, hung (wedged is more severe than hung). 2. Often 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.
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wedgie n.
[Fairchild] A bug. Prob. related to wedged.
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wedgitude /wedj'i-t[y]ood/ n.
The quality or state of being wedged.