Hedge

1. n. 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.
2. v. t. To inclose or separate with a hedge; to fence with a thickly set line or thicket of shrubs or small trees; as, to hedge a field or garden.
3. v. t. To obstruct, as a road, with a barrier; to hinder from progress or success; — sometimes with up and out.
4. v. t. To surround for defense; to guard; to protect; to hem (in).
5. v. t. To surround so as to prevent escape.
6. v. i. 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.
7. v. i. To reduce the risk of a wager by making a bet against the side or chance one has bet on.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.