hobble
English
editEtymology
editFrom Middle English hobblen, hobelen, akin to Middle Dutch hoblen, hobbelen (Modern Dutch hobbelen).
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /ˈhɒbəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Hyphenation: hob‧ble
- Rhymes: -ɒbəl
Noun
edithobble (plural hobbles)
- (chiefly in the plural) One of the short straps tied between the legs of unfenced horses, allowing them to wander short distances but preventing them from running off.
- An unsteady, off-balance step.
- 2017, Sam Shepard, chapter 37, in Spy of the First Person, →ISBN, page 82:
- We made it and we hobbled up the stairs. Or I hobbled. My sons didn't hobble, I hobbled.
- (archaic, informal) A difficult situation; a scrape.
- 1845, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Cock and Anchor:
- "Saddle a horse—any horse—only let him be sure and fleet," cried Ashwoode, "and I'll pay you his price thrice over!"
"Well, it's a bargain," replied the groom, promptly; "I don't like to see a gentleman caught in a hobble, if I can help him out of it. […]
- (dialect, UK and Newfoundland) An odd job; a piece of casual work.
Synonyms
edit- tether (rope)
Translations
editShort straps tied between the legs of unfenced horses
|
An unsteady, off-balance step
|
Verb
edithobble (third-person singular simple present hobbles, present participle hobbling, simple past and past participle hobbled)
- To fetter by tying the legs; to restrict (a horse) with hobbles.
- 1865, Charles Dickens, Doctor Marigold:
- you hobble your old horse and turn him grazing
- To walk lame, or unevenly.
- 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):
- The friar was hobbling the same way too.
- (figurative) To move roughly or irregularly.
- 1815, William Wordsworth, The White Doe of Rylstone:
- The hobbling versification, the mean diction.
- To perplex; to embarrass.
Synonyms
edit- (walk unevenly): hirple
Translations
editTo restrict a horse with hobbles
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To walk unevenly
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Derived terms
editAnagrams
editCategories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱewb-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English 2-syllable words
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- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɒbəl
- Rhymes:English/ɒbəl/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
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- English dialectal terms
- British English
- Newfoundland English
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