Hedge Meaning
/ˈhɛd͡ʒ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA 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.
nounA barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm.
Sentence Examples
A hedge between keeps friendship green.
The cat crept under the hedge.
This wealthy hedge fund manager has a home in the Hamptons.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The gardener trimmed the ____ around the garden to keep it neat.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The tall green ____ around the garden provides us with a lot of privacy from the neighbors.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window[…], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them."
— 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
"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:
"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:
"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:
"This particular wheelwright is only a hedge carpenter, without even a shop of his own,[…]."
— 1899, Henry Rider Haggard, A Farmer's Year: Being His Commonplace Book for 1898, page 222:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The gardener trimmed the ____ around the garden to keep it neat.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The tall green ____ around the garden provides us with a lot of privacy from the neighbors.