Hedge

Hedge - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

HEDGE, n. hej. [Eng. haw] Properly, a thicket of thorn-bushes or other shrubs or small trees; but appropriately, such a thicket planted round a field to fence it, or in rows, to separate the parts of a garden.

Hedge, prefixed to another word, or in composition, denotes something mean, as a hedge-priest, a hedge-press, a hedge-vicar, that is, born in or belonging to the hedges or woods, low, outlandish. [Not used in American.]

HEDGE, v.t. hej. To inclose with a hedge; to fence with a thicket of shrubs or small trees; to separate by a hedge; as, to hedge a field or garden.

1. To obstruct with a hedge, or to obstruct in any manner.

I will hedge up thy way with thorns. Hosea 2.

2. To surround for defense; to fortify.

England hedged in with the main.

3. To inclose for preventing escape.

That is a law to hedge in the cuckow.

Dryden, Swift and Shakespeare have written hedge, for edge, to edge in, but improperly.

HEDGE, v.i. hej. To hide, as in a hedge; to hide; to skulk.

hej:

(1) mecukhah, "a thorn hedge," only in Mic 7:4.; mesukkah, "a hedge" (Isa 5:5); mesukhath chadheq, "a hedge of thorns" (Pr 15:19).

(2) gadher, and geherah, translated "hedges" in the Revised Version (British and American) only in Ps 89:40, elsewhere "fence." GEDERAH (which see) in the Revised Version margin is translated "hedges" (1Ch 4:23).

(3) na`atsuts, "thorn-hedges" (Isa 7:19).

(4) phragmos, translated "hedge" (Mt 21:33; Mr 12:1; Lu 14:23); "partition" in Eph 2:14, which is its literal meaning. In the Septuagint it is the usual equivalent of the above Hebrew words.

Loose stone walls without mortar are the usual "fences" around fields in Palestine, and this is what gadher and gedherah signify in most passages. Hedges made of cut thorn branches or thorny bushes are very common in the plains and particularly in the Jordan valley.

E. W. G. Masterman