hedge

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A row of closely planted shrubs or low-growing trees forming a fence or boundary.
• noun A line of people or objects forming a barrier.
• noun A means of protection or defense, especially against financial loss.
• noun A securities transaction that reduces the risk on an existing investment position.
• noun An intentionally noncommittal or ambiguous statement.
• noun A word or phrase, such as possibly or I think, that mitigates or weakens the certainty of a statement.
• intransitive verb To enclose or bound with or as if with hedges.
• intransitive verb To hem in, hinder, or restrict with or as if with a hedge.
• intransitive verb To minimize or protect against the loss of by counterbalancing one transaction, such as a bet, against another.
• intransitive verb To plant or cultivate hedges.
• intransitive verb To take compensatory measures so as to counterbalance possible loss.
• intransitive verb To avoid making a clear, direct response or statement.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun 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.
• noun A structure made to lead fish into channels across which nets are spread.
• To inclose or fence with a hedge; separate by a hedge: as, to hedge a field or garden.
• To obstruct with a hedge or any barrier; stop or restrain by any kind of obstruction.
• To surround with something as a barrier or a border; compass about; hem in.
• In sporting, to protect by betting on both sides. See to hedge a bet, below.
• To hide as in a hedge; shift; skulk.
• In betting, to protect one's self from loss by cross-bets. See to hedge a bet, above.
• Hence To provide a means of retreat or escape; avoid committing one's self irrevocably to anything.
• To make or mend hedges.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• 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.
• noun (Bot.) a climbing plant related to the morning-glory (Convolvulus sepium).
• noun a long-handled billhook.
• noun (Bot.) a plant of the genus Alliaria. See Garlic mustard, under Garlic.
• noun (Bot.) a bitter herb of the genus Gratiola, the leaves of which are emetic and purgative.
• noun [Eng.] a secret or clandestine marriage, especially one performed by a hedge priest.
• noun (Bot.) a plant of the genus Sisymbrium, belonging to the Mustard family.
• noun (Bot.) an herb, or under shrub, of the genus Stachys, belonging to the Mint family. It has a nettlelike appearance, though quite harmless.
• noun [Obs.] Low, contemptible writing.
• noun a poor, illiterate priest.
• noun an open-air school in the shelter of a hedge, in Ireland; a school for rustics.
• noun (Zoöl.) a European warbler (Accentor modularis) which frequents hedges. Its color is reddish brown, and ash; the wing coverts are tipped with white. Called also chanter, hedge warbler, dunnock, and doney.
• noun [Obs.] an insignificant writer, or a writer of low, scurrilous stuff.
• noun See under Breast.
• noun to be at a standstill.
• intransitive 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.
• intransitive verb (Betting) To reduce the risk of a wager by making a bet against the side or chance one has bet on.
• intransitive verb To use reservations and qualifications in one's speech so as to avoid committing one's self to anything definite.
• transitive verb To inclose or separate with a hedge; to fence with a thickly set line or thicket of shrubs or small trees.
• transitive verb To obstruct, as a road, with a barrier; to hinder from progress or success; -- sometimes with up and out.
• transitive verb To surround for defense; to guard; to protect; to hem (in).
• transitive verb To surround so as to prevent escape.
• transitive verb To protect oneself against excessive loss in an activity by taking a countervailing action.
• transitive verb to bet upon both sides; that is, after having bet on one side, to bet also on the other, thus guarding against loss. See hedge{5}.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• 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.
• noun A non-committal or intentionally ambiguous statement.