Hedge

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File:Longleat Hedge Maze (detail).JPG
A maze of hedges.

English

Noun

Hedge (plural Hedges)
  1. A thicket of bushes, usually thorn bushes; especially, such a thicket planted as a fence between any two portions of land; and also any sort of shrubbery, as evergreens, planted in a line or as a fence; particularly, such a thicket planted round a field to fence it, or in rows to separate the parts of a garden.
    He trims the hedge once a week.
  2. A non-committal or intentionally ambiguous statement.
  3. (finance) Contract or arrangement reducing one's exposure to risk (for example the risk of price movements or interest rate movements).
    The asset class acts as a hedge.
  4. (UK, Irish, noun adjunct) Used attributively, with figurative indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; third-rate.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.2:
      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.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 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.

Verb

Hedge (third-person singular simple present Hedges, present participle hedging, simple past and past participle hedged)

  1. (transitive) To enclose.
  2. (transitive) To obstruct.
  3. (transitive, finance) To offset the risk associated with.
  4. (intransitive) To avoid verbal commitment.
    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.

Adjectives for Hedge

lofty; wayside; impenetrable; rustic; decorative; thorny; prickly; flowery.

Synonyms for Hedge

temporize, dodge, equivocate, evade, hide, disappear, fence, enclose, shelter, fortify, shield, guard, block, trim.

Antonyms for Hedge

meet, face, answer, confront, stand firm, unfence, free, open, neglect.

Derived terms

terms derived from hedge (noun)

Derived terms

Thesaurus

abate, about the bush, adjust to, allowance, alter, around the bush, assuage, bar, beat about, beat around, beg the question, bicker, boggle, border line, bound, boundary, boundary condition, boundary line, bourn, box in, break boundary, breakoff point, bulkhead in, cage, calculation, canniness, care, careful consideration, carefulness, caution, cautiousness, cavil, ceiling, cession, choplogic, circumscribe, circumscription, circumspection, clear the decks, compass, concession, condition, confine, consider every angle, contain, coop, copyright, corral, cutoff, cutoff point, deadline, deliberate stages, deliberateness, deliberation, delimitation, determinant, diminish, discipline, discretion, division line, dodge, draw the line, duck, end, equivocate, evade, evade the issue, exception, exemption, extenuating circumstances, extremity, fence, finish, floor, forearm, frontier, gingerliness, grain of salt, grant, guard against, guardedness, hedge about, hedging, heed, heedfulness, hem, hem and haw, hesitation, high-water mark, immure, interface, judiciousness, leave out nothing, leaven, limen, limit, limitation, limiting factor, line, line of demarcation, low-water mark, lower limit, make sure, make sure against, march, mark, mental reservation, mete, mew, mindfulness, mitigate, moderate, modification, modify, modulate, mystify, narrow, nitpick, obscure, overlook no possibility, pale, palisade, palliate, palter, parry, patent, pawkiness, pen, pick nits, picket, play safe, prepare for, prevaricate, prior consultation, provide a hedge, provide against, provide for, prudence, prudentialness, pull away, pull back, pussyfoot, put off, qualification, qualify, quibble, rail, recoil, reduce, reef down, regardfulness, register, regulate by, reservation, restrain, restrict, restriction, safeness, safety first, salvo, scant, season, set conditions, set limits, sheer off, shift, shift off, shorten sail, shrink, shuffle, shy, shy away, shy off, sidestep, slowness to act, soften, solicitude, special case, special treatment, specialize, specialness, specification, split hairs, start, starting line, starting point, step aside, stint, straiten, swerve, take measures, take precautions, take steps, target date, temper, tentativeness, tergiversate, term, terminal date, terminus, thoroughness, threshold, time allotment, uncommunicativeness, unprecipitateness, upper limit, waiver, wall, ward off, weasel

Etymology

Middle English hegge, from Old English hecg, from Proto-Germanic *hagjaz (compare Dutch heg, German Hecke), from Proto-Indo-European *kaghi̯on. More at haw.

Pronunciation

Translations

Noun

thicket of bushes planted in a row
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