war hedge
war hedge noun: a defensive formation used by medieval Germanic warriors in which shields were positioned to overlap and create a continuous barrier.
Noun
war hedge (plural war hedges)
- A defensive formation used by medieval Germanic warriors in which shields were positioned to overlap and create a continuous barrier.
- And unshielded smote King Gunnar, and sent the Niblung song
Through the quaking stems of battle in the hall of Atli's wrong:
Then he rent the knitted war-hedge till by Hognside he stood.1877, William Morris, The story of Sigurd the Volsung and the fall of the Niblungs, Boston: Roberts Brothers, page 362 - Their spears protruded from the chinks in this formation that was known as the ‘shieldwall’ or ‘war hedge’.1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 154
- Synonyms:
- shield wall
- And unshielded smote King Gunnar, and sent the Niblung song
Synonyms of war hedge
Forms of war hedge
| plural | war hedges |
|---|
Origin of war hedge
See Old English wighaga, with the same meaning.
Questions about war hedge
- What does war hedge mean?
- War hedge means a defensive formation used by medieval Germanic warriors in which shields were positioned to overlap and create a continuous barrier.
- What part of speech is war hedge?
- War hedge is a noun.
- What is the plural of war hedge?
- The plural of war hedge is war hedges.
Words near war hedge in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: war hedge (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “war hedge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/war_hedge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.