Meanings
present singular third person behedges · participle present behedging · participle past behedged · past behedged
- transitiveTo hedge about; surround with or as with a hedge.
[...] so that, though he had neither fixed flag not fixed father to cloud his thought and behedge his landscape, he could still, he used to say, share in the gush about ancestry.
1932, Thomas Burke, City of encounters: a London divertissement - transitiveTo determine the boundary or limit of; define.
Having been spawned in a royal bed — perchance the same in which his great gran'dame Catherine was wont to receive her paramours — he becomes the most powerful of princes — haloed with "that divinity which doth behedge a king" — and all [...]
1905, William Cowper Brann, J.D. Shaw, Brann the iconoclast - transitiveTo surround; beset; plague; hinder.
Reflection finds the circumstance unfortunate that most of the agreeable actions of life are either forbidden or else deplorably behedged with restrictions.
1927, James Branch Cabell, Straws and Prayer-Books1 more example
[...] nor is it necessary to do more than call attention to a few indisputable facts to prove that the public policy he recommends would do little or nothing to ameliorate the hard conditions that behedge the toiling millions.
2005, William Cowper Brann, The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast Volume ThreeSynonyms: impede, blunt, crimp, foreclose, delay, difficult, diminish, forestay
- transitiveTo straiten; restrict; constrain; limit.
The remaining heirs are therefore not to be defeated by any of the restrictions that behedge the remedies available to the third-party beneficiary of a contract; [...]
1968, Edward Weldon Bailey, Texas law of willsSynonyms: curtail, restrain, guard, govern, smother, bind, chasten, choke back
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo surround; beset; plague; hinder.
verbTo straiten; restrict; constrain; limit.
Origin
From be- + hedge; compare Old English behegian and Dutch beheggen (“to put a hedge around, behedge”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
behedge. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behedge
“behedge.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behedge. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “behedge,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/behedge.
Source: behedge on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.