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Showing results for hobbyhorse. Search instead for ride-a-hobby-horse.
Synonyms

hobbyhorse

American  
[hob-ee-hawrs] / ˈhɒb iˌhɔrs /

noun

  1. a stick with a horse's head, or a rocking horse, ridden by children.

  2. a figure of a horse, attached at the waist of a performer in a morris dance, pantomime, etc.

  3. a pet idea or project.


hobbyhorse British  
/ ˈhɒbɪˌhɔːs /

noun

  1. a toy consisting of a stick with a figure of a horse's head at one end

  2. another word for rocking horse

  3. a figure of a horse attached to a performer's waist in a pantomime, morris dance, etc

  4. a favourite topic or obsessive fixed idea (esp in the phrase on one's hobbyhorse )

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

  1. (intr) nautical (of a vessel) to pitch violently

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of hobbyhorse

First recorded in 1550–60; hobby 1 + horse


Vocabulary lists containing hobbyhorse

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

In 2017, the National Institutes of Health asked Hotez to meet with Kennedy to move him off the hobbyhorse of a vaccine-autism link.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2025

He has gone on to establish regular, silly characters - a romantic poet, a highwayman with a hobbyhorse, and a running story that sends up the allure of the archetypal aloof hero.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2022

“That the judge has this guy in his power and he can impose whatever hobbyhorse is important to him.”

From New York Times ● Aug. 23, 2021

As you wind the path, the gaze of Jeff Koons’s “Split-Rocker” — a massive, grinning hobbyhorse head displayed on the hillside a la Rio de Janeiro’s “Christ the Redeemer” — is omnipresent.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2021

Simon grinned and grabbed one of the wooden baking paddles, which he proceeded to ride like a hobbyhorse ’round the bakehouse.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood

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