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View synonyms for hobbyhorse

hobbyhorse

[ hob-ee-hawrs ]

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

/ 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
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Word History and Origins

Origin of hobbyhorse1

First recorded in 1550–60; hobby 1 + horse
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Word History and Origins

Origin of hobbyhorse1

C16: from hobby 1, originally a small horse, hence sense 3; then generalized to apply to any pastime
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Example Sentences

Spanning 40 feet, it’s a riff on a hobbyhorse, but with a horned goat’s head.

You can get “money, Nobels… celebrity for any cause or hobbyhorse….”

Obama came out for medical malpractice reform, a GOP hobbyhorse roughly forever (although the devil is in the details).

That you must carry everyone with you, swelling the ranks, is a hard-ridden Wasp hobbyhorse.

He laid hold of it and109 drew it out and set down on the faint rug of light a small wooden hobbyhorse.

It was Malcolm's hobbyhorse, dappled gray, the tail and the mane missing and the paint worn off—and tenderly licked off—his nose.

While he went within doors he had left the hobbyhorse in the snow, close to the wall; and he came back there to wait.

There he saw a spring hobbyhorse, as large as a Shetland pony, all saddled and bridled, too—lacking nothing but a rider.

They were smaller than the tiniest hobbyhorse that has ever been seen, as small almost as the toy horses in a "Noah's ark."

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