Word.ws English Dictionary

thin end of the wedge

thin end of the wedge noun: something that if allowed or accepted to a small degree would lead to systematic encroachment.

Noun

the thin end of the wedge

  1. (idiomatic) Something that if allowed or accepted to a small degree would lead to systematic encroachment.
    • The MP told parliament that legalising cannabis would be the thin end of the wedge.
    • This is known as the 'thin end of the wedge' argument raised by people who don't want to lose the protection of restrictive covenants. The 'thin end of the wedge' means that when you drive a wedge into something, you use the thin end first because it's easier than using the thick end.2018 August 14, April Stroud, Making Sense of Land Law, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN

Forms of thin end of the wedge

alternative formsmall end of the wedge
alternative formthin edge of the wedge

Questions about thin end of the wedge

What does thin end of the wedge mean?
Thin end of the wedge means something that if allowed or accepted to a small degree would lead to systematic encroachment.
What part of speech is thin end of the wedge?
Thin end of the wedge is a noun.

Words near thin end of the wedge in the dictionary

  1. thin clients
  2. thin computing
  3. thin content
  4. thin down
  5. thin edge of the wedge
  6. thin end of the wedge
  7. thin film
  8. thin films
  9. thin layer chromatography
  10. thin on the ground
  11. thin out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: thin end of the wedge (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-thin end of the wedge.ogg.

Cite this entry: “thin end of the wedge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/thin_end_of_the_wedge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.