Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Grown from cuttings planted directly in the ground: Describes a plant, typically a hedge plant like hawthorn, that is established by planting cuttings or slips directly into the soil where it is intended to grow, rather than being transplanted as a seedling from elsewhere.

2. Noun:

   • Cuttings of plants set in the ground to grow: Refers to the cuttings themselves, especially of plants like hawthorn or vines, when they are planted to form a hedge or to propagate.
   • A hedge grown from such cuttings: Can also refer to the hedge or barrier that results from planting these cuttings.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • The farmer planted a quickset hawthorn boundary.
  • A traditional quickset hedge is very dense and long-lasting.

• Noun:

  • He gathered a bundle of quickset for the new hedge.
  • The old quickset around the garden provided excellent shelter for birds.

Advanced Usage

• The term is most commonly associated with traditional farming and hedge-laying practices in the UK and Europe. It implies a specific, historical method of creating living field boundaries.
• "To set a quickset": This phrase describes the action of planting the cuttings.
  • In spring, they set the quickset along the property line.

Variants and Related Words

• Quick: While the word "quick" in modern English primarily means "fast," its older meaning is "living" or "alive" (as in "the quick and the dead"). "Quickset" derives from this older sense, meaning a "living set" or planting.
• Hedgerow: A more general term for a line of bushes or trees forming a hedge, which may or may not be a quickset hedge.

Synonyms

• Adjective: Slip-planted, cutting-grown.
• Noun: Cutting, slip, set, hedge plant.

Related Phrases

• Quickset hedge: This is the most common compound phrase. It specifically denotes a hedge formed by planting live cuttings directly.
  • The countryside was divided by ancient quickset hedges.

Notes on Meaning

• The primary modern use is as a noun modifier in the phrase "quickset hedge." Standing alone, the word is somewhat archaic but is understood in agricultural, gardening, and historical contexts.
• It specifically refers to the of planting (using unrooted cuttings) and the (a living hedge), not to the speed of growth.

Adjective

1. grown from cuttings planted directly in the ground
   • a quickset hawthorn hedge

Noun

1. cuttings of plants set in the ground to grow as hawthorn for hedges or vines
   • a quickset of a vine planted in a vineyard