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.

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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 )

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verb

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

Etymology

Origin of hobbyhorse

First recorded in 1550–60; hobby ¹ + horse

Example Sentences

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

Still, his hobbyhorse will be on the Supreme Court’s agenda, and it has drawn as much zealous backing as it has ferocious pushback.

From New York Times • Feb. 7, 2024

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

I don’t mean to jump back on my hobbyhorse of complaining about lack of knowledge in tech journalism, but printing a claim like that is egregious.

From Slate • Oct. 22, 2013

Once Rolfe had made him a hobbyhorse, and once Elfred the Dane had made him a boat, but it had not seemed so fine as this one.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli