hobo
Americannoun
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hobos,
plural
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hoboes
plural
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a tramp or vagrant.
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a migratory worker.
noun
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a tramp; vagrant
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a migratory worker, esp an unskilled labourer
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of hobo
An Americanism dating back to 1885–90; origin uncertain
Explanation
Be careful when you call a vagrant or homeless person a hobo — although this is exactly what the word means, it is a somewhat offensive term. The end of the nineteenth century brought the start of the word hobo in the Western United States. No one is certain where the word came from, although there are a couple of educated guesses. One possible origin is the English word hawbuck, which means "country bumpkin," while another is the common working man's greeting or call during the building of the railroads in the West, ho, boy!
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:
Part hobo, part insult comic, part performance artist, Diogenes flaunted his disregard for convention in ways that scandalized the bourgeoisie of Athens and, later, Corinth, after his banishment from Sinope became permanent.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
Yes, it wasn't a boy; it was a little girl, but I couldn't tell because she was dressed like a hobo.
From Salon ● Oct. 31, 2023
The trilogy includes “The Areas of My Expertise,” a book that contains, among other things, a list of 700 hobo names.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2023
Still, Hurley balked at music executives who suggested he recruit rock virtuosos as a backing band or a German promoter who implored him to portray an American hobo for the European press.
From New York Times ● Dec. 8, 2021
Styx shoved one end of the stick through the bandanna knot, then hiked the pack up over his shoulder, like a real old-timey hobo.
From "The Season of Styx Malone" by Kekla Magoon
Starting with “Rolling Nowhere,” his 1984 account of hopping trains with hoboes, Conover has made a career of immersing himself in seemingly impenetrable subcultures, then writing with sympathy and insight about his experiences.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 1, 2022
He traveled around the world — Haiti, Bosnia, Afghanistan — for high-profile magazine assignments and rode the rails across the United States, chronicling some of the last of the hoboes.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 11, 2022
Or will Rory’s talk of hoboes and the inconsequence of mankind as seen from space have some effect on Pete’s work on the new alpine skiing account?
From Slate ● May 7, 2012
Britt, Iowa, hung its bunting out again last week; the hoboes were coming to town.
From Time Magazine Archive
He traveled for a long time with the hoboes and worked for a short time as a scarecrow.
From "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DiCamillo
A friend recently observed that many young, relatively affluent people in his New York City neighborhood—which voted heavily for Zohran Mamdani—dress like hobos and sport Carhartt workwear.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
When you think about the folk era, when it was really hot — burning hot — it was hobos on freighters writing songs about social injustice.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2024
In 2014, Deadspin published the article "Candy Corn Is Garbage," which said the candy was the diet of "hobos, serial murderers and Satan."
From Salon ● Oct. 30, 2022
He lived in his own, strange world populated by hobos, French Canadians, cardsharps, trappers, a pig with a wooden leg, farmers, hooligans, and, for reasons no one will ever understand, Frank Stallone.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 14, 2022
Back then, there were hobos that rode the rails and lived along the tracks in between times.
From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson
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.
