Hedge

/ˈhɛd͡ʒ/ · noun

Meaning

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..

Definitions by Sense

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.
2. A barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm.
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.
5. (finance) Contract or arrangement reducing one's exposure to risk (for example the risk of price movements or interest rate movements).
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.
7. (transitive) To enclose with a hedge or hedges.
8. (transitive) To obstruct or surround.

Example Sentences

He trims the hedge once a week.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Synonyms for hedge

Antonyms for hedge

Related Words

Word Forms

• hedges
• hedging
• hedged

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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