hedges

Noun

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.
2. 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.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 1:9–10
3. (Cornwall, Devon, UK, West-Country) A mound of earth, stone- or turf-faced, often topped with bushes, used as a fence between any two portions of land.
4. (especially applied linguistics and pragmatics) 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.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
5. 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.
6. (Ireland, UK, attributive, figuratively) With indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; being third-rate, poor, shoddy.
   • 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.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 2, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

See all 13 meanings of hedge