hedge vs shrub

hedge

noun
  • A thicket of bushes or other shrubbery, especially one planted as a fence between two portions of land, or to separate the parts of a garden. 

  • Contract or arrangement reducing one's exposure to risk (for example the risk of price movements or interest rate movements). 

  • A mound of earth, stone- or turf-faced, often topped with bushes, used as a fence between any two portions of land. 

  • Used attributively, with figurative indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; third-rate. 

  • A barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm. 

  • A non-committal or intentionally ambiguous statement. 

verb
  • To obstruct or surround. 

  • To offset the risk associated with. 

  • To construct or repair a hedge. 

  • To enclose with a hedge or hedges. 

  • To reduce one's exposure to risk. 

  • To avoid verbal commitment. 

shrub

noun
  • A woody plant smaller than a tree, and usually with several stems from the same base. 

  • A word mispronounced by replacing some consonant sounds with others of a similar place of articulation due to interference from one's knowledge of an indigenous Kenyan language. 

  • A liquor composed of vegetable acid, fruit juice (especially lemon), sugar, sometimes vinegar, and a small amount of spirit as a preservative. Modern shrub is usually non-alcoholic, but in earlier times it was often mixed with a substantial amount of spirit such as brandy or rum, thus making it a liqueur. 

verb
  • To mispronounce a word by replacing some consonant sounds with others of a similar place of articulation due to interference from one's knowledge of an indigenous Kenyan language. 

How often have the words hedge and shrub occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )