: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
{deadlock}s with another (but not all instances of wedging are
deadlocks). See also {gronk}, {locked up}, {hosed}.
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.
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary
