If you Hedge your Bets, you are supporting more than one cause and so increasing the possibility of a favourable outcome. The phrase's origin is credited to the English peasants who plied their trade between or underneath hedges. The expression "Hedge" was also widely used to refer to the lower classes. A "hedge-priest" was a untrustworthy or poor man of the cloth, a "hedge-writer" was a Grub Street author and a "Hedge-marriage" was a clandestine and possibly bigamous union performed by a hedge-priest. In 1811, a dictionary puts forward that the use of the word "hedge" had become used as a term for protecting oneself against losses on a wager, suggesting that if a gambler "hedges in" their bets they are taking precautions against losses.