hedge
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: hĕj
ipa: /hɛd͡ʒ/
ipa: /hed͡ʒ/
rhymes: -ɛdʒ
Forms: form: hedges
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: He trims the hedge once a week.
text: 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.
ref: 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 1:9–10:
glosses: A barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm.
glosses: A mound of earth, stone- or turf-faced, often topped with bushes, used as a fence between any two portions of land.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
coordinate_terms: weasel word
qualifier: especially applied linguistics and pragmatics
glosses: A noncommittal or intentionally ambiguous statement.
examples: text: The asset class acts as a hedge.
text: 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.
topics: business
finance
coordinate_terms: diversification
glosses: Contract or arrangement reducing one's exposure to risk (for example the risk of price movements or interest rate movements).
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 2, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: 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.
text: This particular wheelwright is only a hedge carpenter, without even a shop of his own,[…].
ref: 1899, Henry Rider Haggard, A Farmer's Year: Being His Commonplace Book for 1898, page 222:
glosses: With indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; third-rate, poor, shoddy.
Derived terms: behedge
box hedge
Cornish hedge
enhedge
fedge
hain
hedge alehouse
hedgeapple
hedge apple
hedgebank
hedgeberry
hedgebill
hedge bindweed
hedgeborn
hedgebote
hedge-breaking
hedge cactus
hedge creeper
hedge-diving
Hedge End
hedge fund
hedge garlic
hedge-hog
hedgehog
hedgehop
hedge-hop
hedgehopper
hedgehyssop
hedgeless
hedgelike
hedgeline
hedge-lined
hedgemaker
hedgemaking
hedge marriage
hedge maze
hedge mustard
hedgenettle
hedge-note
hedge parsley
hedge parson
hedgepig
hedge popping
hedge priest
hedge rider
hedge riding
hedgerow
hedge school
hedge sermon
hedge sparrow
hedgetop
hedge tree
hedge trimmer
hedge warbler
hedgeward
hedgewards
hedge whore
hedgewise
hedgewitch
hedge witch
hedge wizard
hedgie
hedgy
homely as a hedge fence
jack-by-the-hedge
look as if one has been dragged through a hedge backwards
milk hedge
palisade-hedge
robin-run-in-the-hedge
robin-run-the-hedge
time hedge
unhedge