<p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>a row of bushes or small trees planted close together, especially when forming a fence or boundary; hedgerow.</li><li>small fields separated by hedges.</li><li>any barrier or boundary: a hedge of stones.</li><li>an act or means of preventing complete loss of a bet, an argument, an investment, or the like, with a partially counterbalancing or qualifying one.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used with object)</strong></p><ul><li>to enclose with or separate by a hedge: to hedge a garden.</li><li>to surround and confine as if with a hedge; restrict (often followed by in, about, etc.): He felt hedged in by the rules of language.</li><li>to protect with qualifications that allow for unstated contingencies or for withdrawal from commitment: He hedged his program against attack and then presented it to the board.</li><li>to mitigate a possible loss by counterbalancing (one's bets, investments, etc.).</li><li>to prevent or hinder free movement; obstruct: to be hedged by poverty.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used without object)</strong></p><ul><li>to avoid a rigid commitment by qualifying or modifying a position so as to permit withdrawal: He felt that he was speaking too boldly and began to hedge before they could contradict him.</li></ul><p><strong>Synonyms</strong></p><ul><li>waffle, temporize, delay, stall, evade.</li></ul>