hobbledehoy
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
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Alternative forms [edit]
Alternative forms of hobbledehoy
Etymology [edit]
From Scots. Compare English dialect hobbledygee with a limping movement; also French hobereau, a country squire, English hobby, and Old French hoi today; perhaps the original sense was "an upstart of today".
Noun [edit]
hobbledehoy (plural hobbledehoys)
- An awkward adolescent boy.
- 1836, Dickens, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club , chapter 28
- [...] all the men, boys, and hobbledehoys attached to the farm [...]
- 1886, Jerome K Jerome, Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, On being shy
- A man rarely carries his shyness past the hobbledehoy period.
- 1895, H G Wells, The Wonderful Visit, chapter 12
- Two hobbledehoys were standing by the forge staring in a bovine way at the proceedings.
- 1895, Hardy, Jude the Obscure, part 1, chapter 3
- And though it do take—how many years, Bob?—five years to turn a lirruping hobble-de-hoy chap into a solemn preaching man with no corrupt passions, they'll do it, if it can be done [...]
- 1912, Romain Rolland ,Jean-Christophe, Morning, 2
- He was a fair boy, with round pink cheeks, with his hair parted on one side, and a shade of down on his lip. He looked frankly what he was -- a hobbledehoy -- though he made great efforts to seem grown up.
- 1836, Dickens, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club , chapter 28
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
an awkward adolescent boy
Scots [edit]
Noun [edit]
hobbledehoy (plural hobbledehoys)
- An awkward adolescent boy.
Alternative forms [edit]
hobbetyhoy, hobbarddehoy, hobbedehoy, hobdehoy, hobbledygee, hobereau, hobby, hoi to-day.
References [edit]
- Hobbledehoydom, Juan Martinez, 2004.
