hedge

1. (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.CornwallDevonUKWest-Country

2. (linguistics, especially applied linguistics and pragmatics) A noncommittal or intentionally ambiguous statement.Examples: "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."

3. (finance) Contract or arrangement reducing one's exposure to risk (for example the risk of price movements or interest rate movements).Examples: "The asset class acts as a hedge."; "A hedge is an investment position intended to offset potential losses/gains that may be incurred by a companion investment. In simple language, a hedge is used to reduce any substantial losses/gains suffered by an individual or an organization."

4. (UK, Ireland, attributive, figurative) With indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; third-rate, poor, shoddy.Examples: "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."; "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."; "This particular wheelwright is only a hedge carpenter, without even a shop of his own,[…]."IrelandUKattributivefiguratively