Other forms: hedgerows
A hedgerow is a line of bushes marking the edge of a field. An old hedgerow, hedgerow trees, lay the hedgerow.
Britain lost half of them after the war to make fields big enough for machinery, and they are now protected because of what lives in them. The rule of thumb is that a hedgerow gains one woody species per century.
1nounhedgerowA line of bushes marking the edge of a field.
“Blackberries grew wild in the hedgerow along the edge of the lane.”
hedgerow is a boundary.
Old English hecgraew joins hedge and row, and the compound has been in the language since before the Conquest.
Old English
*heċġrāw
Middle English
heggerowe
English, today
hedgerow
Built from
From Middle English heggerowe, heggerewe, heggerawe, from Old English heċġrāw, heċġrǣw (attested only as Old English heġerǣwe, heġerēwe (“hedgerow”)), equivalent to hedge + row.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA