hedge - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

A maze of hedges.

Cornish hedges. (Wikipedia)

Devon hedges. (Wikipedia)

From Middle English hegge, from Old English heċġ, from Proto-West Germanic *haggju, from Proto-Germanic *hagjō, from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰyóm (“enclosure”). Cognate with Dutch heg, German Hecke. Doublet of hey (a choreographic figure) and quay. More at haw.

hedge (plural hedges)

  1. A thicket of bushes or other shrubbery, especially one planted as a fence between two portions of land, or to separate the parts of a garden.
    He trims the hedge once a week.
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
      But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶ […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.
  2. A barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 1:9–10:
      Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
  3. (UK, West Country, chiefly Devon and Cornwall) A mound of earth, stone- or turf-faced, often topped with bushes, used as a fence between any two portions of land.
  4. (linguistics, especially applied linguistics and pragmatics) A noncommittal or intentionally ambiguous statement.
    Coordinate term: weasel word
    • 2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of _Hobson-Jobson_”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 487:
      When not inaccurate, much commentary on the contents of Hobson-Jobson is couched in hedges or relies on speculative estimates in the absence of exact information.
  5. (finance) Contract or arrangement reducing one's exposure to risk (for example the risk of price movements or interest rate movements).
    Coordinate term: diversification
    The asset class acts as a hedge.
    A hedge is an investment position intended to offset potential losses/gains that may be incurred by a companion investment. In simple language, a hedge is used to reduce any substantial losses/gains suffered by an individual or an organization.
  6. (UK, Ireland, attributive, figurative) With indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; being third-rate, poor, shoddy.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 2, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
      Attalus […] made him so dead-drunke that insensibly and without feeling he might prostitute his beauty as the body of a common hedge-harlot, to Mulettiers, Groomes and many of the abject servants of his house.
    • , Folio Society 1973, p.639:
      He then traced them from place to place, till at last he found two of them drinking together, with a third person, at a hedge-tavern near Aldersgate.

thicket of bushes planted in a row

finance: contract or arrangement reducing exposure to risk

Inherited from Middle English heggen, from the noun (see above).

hedge (third-person singular simple present hedges, present participle hedging, simple past and past participle hedged)

  1. (transitive) To enclose with a hedge or hedges.
    to hedge a field or garden
  2. (transitive) To obstruct or surround.
  3. (transitive, finance) To offset the risk associated with.
  4. (ambitransitive) To avoid verbal commitment.
    Synonyms: parry, shuffle
    He carefully hedged his statements with weasel words.
  5. (intransitive) To construct or repair a hedge.
  6. (intransitive, finance) To reduce one's exposure to risk.
    Coordinate term: diversify

to enclose with hedge

to obstruct with hedge

finance: to offset the risk associated with

to avoid verbal commitment

to reduce one's exposure to risk

hedge

  1. alternative form of hegge