hedge

Meaning

Noun

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. (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. A noncommittal or intentionally ambiguous statement.
5. Contract or arrangement reducing one's exposure to risk (for example the risk of price movements or interest rate movements).
6. (Ireland, UK, attributive, figuratively) With indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; third-rate, poor, shoddy.

Verb

1. (transitive) To enclose with a hedge or hedges.
2. (transitive) To obstruct or surround.
3. (transitive) To offset the risk associated with.
4. (ambitransitive) To avoid verbal commitment.
5. (intransitive) To construct or repair a hedge.
6. (intransitive) To reduce one's exposure to risk.

Synonyms

fence

hedgerow

enclosure

evade

hedging

barrier

wall

fudge

dodge

circumvent

parry

paling

duck

🦆

hinder

elude

equivocate

beat around the bush

sidestep

skirt

stall

surround

fencing

border

palisade

hedge in

delay

put off

enclose

move around

next

obfuscate

obstacle

obstruction

prevaricate

pruning shears

rail

rail in

railing

rail off

rampart

rove

secateurs

shrub

shrubbery

shuffle

stockade

swan

🦢

tarry

temporize

tergiversate

Translations

haie

Hecke

siepe

haag

seto

heg

steg

sebe

seto vivo

eludere

bardissa

barriera

afsluiting

Zaun

Pronounced as (IPA)

/hɛd͡ʒ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: hegge

Inherited from Old English: heċġ

Cognate with Dutch: heg

Cognate with German: Hecke

Inherited from Middle English: heggen

In summary

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.

Sentences

The sun shines on both sides of the hedge .