hedge-breaking

English

Noun

hedge-breaking (uncountable)

1. The crime of cutting and taking away branches of a hedge.
   • 1712, The Case of the Hertfordshire Witchcraft Consider'd, London, page 13:

     Might she not, being perhaps accustomed to Hedge-breaking her self, be able to inform her, that there were no Sticks to be had at Cromer?

   • 1895, Kenneth Graham, The Golden Age, London, page 8:

     But the holiday was for all, the rapture of awakening Nature for all, the various outdoor joys of puddles and sun and hedge-breaking for all.