Hedger. See Hedge, sense 2.
1828–45. Hood, Poems (Ed. 1846), p. 96. A black-leg saint, a spiritual hedger.
Hedge-school, subs. (Irish).—A school in the country parts of Ireland formerly conducted in the open air, pending the erection of a permanent building to which the name was transferred. Hence, hedge-schoolmaster.
Hedge-square. To doss (or snooze) in Hedge-square (or street), verb. phr. (vagrants’).—To sleep in the open air.
English Synonyms.—To skipper it; to doss with the daisies; to be under the blue blanket; to put up at the Gutter Hotel; to do a star pitch.
French Synonyms.—Coucher à l’hotel de la belle étoile (pop. = to sleep at the Star Hotel); manger une soupe aux herbes (popular); filer la comète (popular = to nose the comet); coucher dans le lit aux pois verts.
1877. Greenwood, Under the Blue Blanket. The vagrant brotherhood have several slang terms for sleeping out in a field or meadow. It is called ‘snoozing in Hedge Square,’ etc.
Hedge-tavern (or -ale-house), subs. (old).—See quot.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hedge Tavern or Alehouse, A Jilting, Sharping Tavern, or Blind Alehouse.
1705. Farquhar, Twin-rivals, i., 1. That was … in the days of dirty linen, pit-masks, hedge-taverns, and beef-steaks.