hedge

• 

  Thorn hedge
• WordNet 3.6
  • v hedge minimize loss or risk "diversify your financial portfolio to hedge price risks","hedge your bets"
  • v hedge avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues) "He dodged the issue","she skirted the problem","They tend to evade their responsibilities","he evaded the questions skillfully"
  • v hedge enclose or bound in with or as it with a hedge or hedges "hedge the property"
  • v hedge hinder or restrict with or as if with a hedge "The animals were hedged in"
  • n hedge a fence formed by a row of closely planted shrubs or bushes
  • n hedge an intentionally noncommittal or ambiguous statement "when you say `maybe' you are just hedging"
  • n hedge any technique designed to reduce or eliminate financial risk; for example, taking two positions that will offset each other if prices change
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• • n Hedge A thicket of bushes, usually thorn bushes; especially, such a thicket planted as a fence between any two portions of land; and also any sort of shrubbery, as evergreens, planted in a line or as a fence; particularly, such a thicket planted round a field to fence it, or in rows to separate the parts of a garden.☞ Hedge, when used adjectively or in composition, often means rustic outlandish illiterate poor, or mean; as, hedge priest; hedgeborn, etc. "The roughest berry on the rudest hedge .""Through the verdant maze
    Of sweetbrier hedges I pursue my walk."
  • Hedge To inclose or separate with a hedge; to fence with a thickly set line or thicket of shrubs or small trees; as, to hedge a field or garden.
  • Hedge To obstruct, as a road, with a barrier; to hinder from progress or success; -- sometimes with up and out. "I will hedge up thy way with thorns.""Lollius Urbius . . . drew another wall . . . to hedge out incursions from the north."
  • Hedge To protect oneself against excessive loss in an activity by taking a countervailing action; as, to hedge an investment denominated in a foreign currency by buying or selling futures in that currency; to hedge a donation to one political party by also donating to the opposed political party.
  • Hedge (Betting) To reduce the risk of a wager by making a bet against the side or chance one has bet on.
  • Hedge To shelter one's self from danger, risk, duty, responsibility, etc., as if by hiding in or behind a hedge; to skulk; to slink; to shirk obligations. "I myself sometimes, leaving the fear of God on the left hand and hiding mine honor in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge and to lurch."
  • Hedge To surround for defense; to guard; to protect; to hem (in). "England, hedged in with the main."
  • Hedge To surround so as to prevent escape. "That is a law to hedge in the cuckoo."
  • Hedge To use reservations and qualifications in one's speech so as to avoid committing one's self to anything definite. "The Heroic Stanzas read much more like an elaborate attempt to hedge between the parties than . . . to gain favor from the Roundheads."
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• • n hedge A barrier or fence formed by bushes or small trees growing close together, such as thorn-bushes or beeches, and sometimes by woven twigs or wattling; also, a closely planted row of any kind of shrubbery, as evergreens, whether intended as a fence or not. See hedge-plant. The hedge is the prevalent kind of fence in England, but is comparatively rare in the United States. Hedges, especially roadside hedges, are often used by vagabonds as places of shelter or resort; hence hedge is often used in composition to denote something mean, low, rustic: as, a hedge-priest; a hedge-school.
  • n hedge A structure made to lead fish into channels across which nets are spread.
  • hedge To inclose or fence with a hedge; separate by a hedge: as, to hedge a field or garden.
  • hedge To obstruct with a hedge or any barrier; stop or restrain by any kind of obstruction.
  • hedge To surround with something as a barrier or a border; compass about; hem in.
  • hedge In sporting, to protect by betting on both sides. See to hedge a bet, below.
  • hedge To hide as in a hedge; shift; skulk.
  • hedge In betting, to protect one's self from loss by cross-bets. See to hedge a bet, above.
  • hedge Hence To provide a means of retreat or escape; avoid committing one's self irrevocably to anything.
  • hedge To make or mend hedges.
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• • n Hedge hej a thicket of bushes: a fence round a field, &c.: any means of protection
  • v.t Hedge to enclose with a hedge: to obstruct: to surround: to guard: to protect one's self from loss by betting on both sides
  • v.i Hedge to shuffle: to be shifty: to skulk
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• Thomas Fuller

  

  “Though bachelors be the strongest stakes, married men are the best binders, in the hedge of the commonwealth.”
• Benjamin Franklin

  

  “Love thy neighbor -- but don't pull down your hedge.”
• Proverb

  

  “Hedges between keep friendships green.”
• English Proverb

  

  “Love your neighbor, yet pull not down your hedge.”

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