Definition of "hedge" in Anglais

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.

   • He trims the hedge once a week.

2. A barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm.

3. (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.

4. (linguistics, especially applied linguistics and pragmatics) A noncommittal or intentionally ambiguous statement.

5. (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.
   • 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.

6. (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.

   • 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

1. (transitive) To enclose with a hedge or hedges.

   • to hedge a field or garden

2. (transitive) To obstruct or surround.

3. (transitive, finance) To offset the risk associated with.

4. (ambitransitive) To avoid verbal commitment.

   • He carefully hedged his statements with weasel words.

5. (intransitive) To construct or repair a hedge.

6. (intransitive, finance) To reduce one's exposure to risk.