1902 Salt Lake Tribune 23 Nov. 20/7 He took a long swear-off then on the bet hedging game,..he told them that he'd rather lose $100,000 than ever do another piece of hedging.

1964 Guardian 15 Apr. 6/8 Mr Wilson appears to be hedging his bet, and this bet-hedging extended to the Labour Party's representation at the conference.

1976 Ann. Rev. Ecol. & Systematics 7 75 This might be thought of as a means of reducing the effects of environmental heterogeneity, which would otherwise demand more bet hedging.

1990 W. Sheed Ess. in Disguise i. iv. 63 There will be no throat-clearings or scholarly bet-hedging.

2009 S. Connaughton Big Parts 36 Though his pitch was beside the bookie's he was barred from entering... He was a master of paranoid arithmetic and shifty bet hedging.

1971 Times 4 Mar. 12/3 This is, in 1885, a bet-hedging piece, and not an outstandingly insightful one.

1982 Washington Post 25 July a1/3 These assorted endeavors, cutting across both political and ideological lines, may be more than just bet-hedging contradictions or passing gestures of political convenience.

1991 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 5 Dec. 41/1 The very phrase is enough to strike terror in the heart of a stunt man or soldier of fortune, let alone a cautious, bet-hedging reviewer.

2003 M. E. N. Majerus Sex Wars ix. 203 The bet-hedging gambler will win 12 times as often as the all-or-nothing gambler.