to drive a wedge
13
7.6
- idiom
- /draɪv ə wɛdʒ/
:
sembrar la discordia
- And now she's trying to drive a wedge between us.
- drive a wedge between two
This, this problem often drives a wedge between the parents, which again, is very unhelpful.
- This, this problem often drives a wedge between the parents, which again, is very unhelpful.
- So it drives, it drives a wedge in our connection in that way because it's just fundamentally like offensive to to be treated in that way.
- So as a result, it just continued to kind of drive a wedge until I had a real human connection with someone from Uptown.
Examples
-
Jealousy and resentment drove a wedge between me and Beth as we moved on to other friends.
Blog text (30) -
Nevertheless, corporate lawyers are particularly worried that Justice is trying to drive a wedge between companies and employees.
Academic text (2003) -
And what we have seen repeatedly with this guy is he wants to create and drive a wedge between parents and children.
-
Was it to drive a wedge between the United States and the greater Islamic world?
Blog text (27) -
And because of my toxic thinking, it drove a wedge between me and my husband.
Blog text (28) -
Every time people do this stuff, it drives a wedge between Christians and the lost people.
Blog text (34) -
But Schmidt knew Wendy, and knew that one wrong word could drive a wedge between them, so he kept his reservations to himself.
Fiction book (1991) -
And it is those misgivings that have helped to drive a wedge between two factions of Penn State's Board of Trustees, who sharply disagree about the prudent way forward.
Academic text (2016) -
Her constant criticism only serves to drive a wedge between our friendship.
-
The rumors spread by his colleagues attempt to drive a wedge between him and his boss.
Synonyms
48
4.8
To make people feel strong emotions like anger or fear
23
7.2
Make people or groups divide into two opposing sides
8
8.0
To cause trouble by saying things to make people argue
5
5.3
To cause fights or problems between people on purpose
3
6.3
To make one person or group compete with another to gain an advantage
1
7.4
Make people more angry and cause conflict between groups
1
9.9
To say or do things to make others angry and start fights
Make people split into groups with opposite views and strong disagreement
Make opinions or groups become very divided, often in politics
To make people argue or fight
To cause disagreement between people or groups
To say or do things that cause arguments and make people angry
To cause trouble between people to get attention
To say or do something that causes strong reactions and confusion among people
To cause a lot of trouble and anger among people
Antonyms
How Divisive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal image of 'drive' (to push) + 'wedge' (a piece used to split things) maps clearly onto the idea of forcing a division between people, so a learner who knows the constituent words can plausibly infer the social meaning. However, this is a metaphorical extension from a physical action to a social relation rather than a strictly compositional, literal meaning, so comprehension may still depend on some exposure or analogy-making.
Etymology
Drive a wedge comes from the image of pushing a thin piece of wood, a wedge, between two boards until they split apart. When you drive the wedge in and the boards separate, the idea became 'to cause disagreement or division' between people.