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Hedge

//hɛd͡ʒ// name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 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."

  2. 2
    a fence formed by a row of closely planted shrubs or bushes wordnet
  3. 3
    A barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm.

    "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."

  4. 4
    an intentionally noncommittal or ambiguous statement wordnet
  5. 5
    A mound of earth, stone- or turf-faced, often topped with bushes, used as a fence between any two portions of land. Cornwall, Devon, UK, West-Country
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  1. 6
    any technique designed to reduce or eliminate financial risk; for example, taking two positions that will offset each other if prices change wordnet
  2. 7
    A noncommittal or intentionally ambiguous statement.

    "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."

  3. 8
    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. 9
    With indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; third-rate, poor, shoddy. Ireland, UK, attributive, figuratively

    "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."

Verb
  1. 1
    To enclose with a hedge or hedges. transitive

    "to hedge a field or garden"

  2. 2
    minimize loss or risk wordnet
  3. 3
    To obstruct or surround. transitive

    "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths."

  4. 4
    avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues) wordnet
  5. 5
    To offset the risk associated with. transitive
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  1. 6
    enclose or bound in with or as it with a hedge or hedges wordnet
  2. 7
    To avoid verbal commitment. ambitransitive

    "He carefully hedged his statements with weasel words."

  3. 8
    hinder or restrict with or as if with a hedge wordnet
  4. 9
    To construct or repair a hedge. intransitive
  5. 10
    To reduce one's exposure to risk. intransitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

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

See also for "hedge"

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