an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation.
Her hobbies include stamp-collecting and woodcarving.
a child's hobbyhorse.
Archaic. a small horse.
an activity pursued in spare time for pleasure or relaxation
archaic a small horse or pony
short for hobbyhorse
an early form of bicycle, without pedals
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English hoby(n), probably from Robin, or Robert ( cf. hob 2), used as horse's name, as in dobbin
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English hoby, from Middle French hobé, variant of Middle French, Old French hobel (compare French hobereau ), probably noun derivative of hobeler “to skirmish, harass,” perhaps from Middle Dutch hob(b)elen “to turn, roll”; compare Dutch hobbelen “to rock, jolt” ( cf. hobble)
A hobby is an activity that you do in your spare time for fun. Your hobby may be putting together model train sets and driving your mom crazy from all the noise. In the 13th century the word hobby referred to a small horse or a pony. It later came to describe a toy horse — a hobbyhorse. It’s from the hobbyhorse that the word’s modern sense of “favorite pastime” evolved. A hobby is something that you do for fun — not money — and you typically do it fairly regularly. Collecting stamps, growing roses, reading — any of these can be hobbies.
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Polling from the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston also found that Republican primary voters see both candidates as equally strong for the general election context.
From Salon • May 20, 2026
National deployment officers from the TSA were deployed to Houston’s Hobby Airport on March 10, and they continue to assist with staffing shortages as of Friday afternoon, an airport spokesperson confirmed.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 20, 2026
Kerri Atherton, from the British Toy and Hobby Association - which is hosting its annual trade fair at London's Olympia, said it was still too early to know what the fallout would be.
From BBC • Jan. 20, 2026
Richard Goosmann, co-owner of Eugene Toy and Hobby in Eugene, Ore., says most of his 150 or so suppliers raised prices 10% to 20%.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 7, 2025
“I know this view. That drainage ditch...This is my mom’s old neighborhood, where she grew up. Hobby Airport is over that way.”
From "The Mark of Athena" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
