“hedges” is a form of
hedge
/ˈhɛd͡ʒ/ noun, verb, proper noun
- noun 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.”
- noun A barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm.
- noun (UK, West Country, chiefly Devon and Cornwall) A mound of earth, stone- or turf-faced, often topped with bushes, used as a fence between any two portions of land.
- noun (linguistics, especially applied linguistics and pragmatics) A noncommittal or intentionally ambiguous statement.
- noun (finance) 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.”
- noun (UK, Ireland, attributive, figurative) With indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; being third-rate, poor, shoddy. “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.”
- verb (transitive) To enclose with a hedge or hedges.
- verb (transitive) To obstruct or surround.
- verb (transitive, finance) To offset the risk associated with.
- verb (ambitransitive) To avoid verbal commitment. “He carefully hedged his statements with weasel words.”
- verb (intransitive) To construct or repair a hedge.
- verb (intransitive, finance) To reduce one's exposure to risk.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
parry shuffle hedgerow hedging fudge evade put off circumvent elude skirt dodge duck sidestep hedge in
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.
Inherited from Middle English heggen, from the noun (see above).
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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.
- verb 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.
- verb 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. Hos. ii. 6.
- verb 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.
Etymology [OE. hegge, AS. hecg; akin to haga an inclosure, E. haw, AS. hege hedge, E. haybote, D. hegge, OHG. hegga, G. hecke. sq. root12. See Haw a hedge.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hedge”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details