hobbledehoy
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of hobbledehoy
1530–40; variant of hoberdyhoy, alliterative compound, equivalent to hoberd (variant of Roberd Robert) + -y 2 + -hoy for boy ( b > h for alliteration; see hob 2)
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.
“I know a lot of these young men who are at a somewhat awkward stage, like Trollope’s hobbledehoy, caught somewhere between childhood and adulthood,” says Schine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2023
For Anthony, "a hobbledehoy of 19, without any idea of a career," Frances obtained a clerkship in the London Post Office.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Louisiana an Elson Reader was banned because of this Mother Goose couplet: The gentleman rides gallop-a-trot, gallop- a-trot; The farmer rides hobbledehoy, hobble- de-hoy.
From Time Magazine Archive
He interested me much—because he was so exceptionally uninteresting; a pallid, anæmic, indefinite hobbledehoy, with a high, narrow forehead, and sketchy features.
From Miss Cayley's Adventures by Grant Allen
A rude hobbledehoy of the St Malo peasant class opened the hut door and stared.
From Love's Usuries by Louis Creswicke
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.
