hobbyhorse

noun

hob·by·horse ˈhä-bē-ˌhȯrs

Synonyms of hobbyhorse next

: a figure of a horse fastened about the waist in the morris dance

: a dancer wearing this figure

obsolete : buffoon

: a stick having an imitation horse's head at one end that a child pretends to ride

: rocking horse

: a toy horse suspended by springs from a frame

: a topic to which one constantly reverts

: hobby entry 2

Did you know?

Does your favorite hobby involve a horse? Whether it does or not, the word hobby is undeniably equine: it’s a shortening of the older term hobbyhorse. And in a strange etymological twist, the word hobbyhorse is itself a product of an older word hobby that in the 1400s referred to a small or medium-sized horse, especially one that moved at a gentle pace. By the mid 1500s, hobby horse was being used to refer to a horse costume worn by a person participating in a morris dance or other performance, and then to a toy consisting of a stick with a toy horse's head at one end that a child pretends to ride. By the next century the literal horse was unneeded, and hobbyhorse could refer to a favorite pursuit or pastime—that is, our modern hobby. From pastime, the meaning of hobbyhorse was extended to “a subject that someone returns to repeatedly, especially in conversation.” This sense is typically encountered in such phrases as “get on one’s hobbyhorse” or “ride one’s hobbyhorse.”

Examples of hobbyhorse in a Sentence

Once he gets on his hobbyhorse and starts talking about taxes, you can't get him to discuss anything else. She's been riding that hobbyhorse for months.

Recent Examples on the Web In part that’s because, to climb back on an old hobbyhorse of mine, platforms are still too stingy with the data that might help researchers understand them better. —

Casey Newton, The Verge, 24 May 2023 Nor does the Trooper seem to hobbyhorse longitudinally or wobble laterally while running straight on some surfaces, as the S-10 Blazer sometimes does. —

Pete Lyons, Car and Driver, 26 Mar. 2023 The short-wheelbase Suzuki hobbyhorses over these rhythmic disturbances and sets your guts a-bouncing. —

Kevin Smith, Car and Driver, 4 Mar. 2023 This is a hobbyhorse of Washington progressives, both because federal jurisdiction over gun crimes hinges on their movement in interstate commerce, and because bloviating about guns is more palatable than addressing who exactly is using guns illegally, a third rail in Democratic Party politics. —

Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 5 Feb. 2022 Most of the criticism is baseless tripe hatched to advance Trump or some other Fox News hobbyhorse, though there have been plenty of legitimate reasons to bash MSNBC and CNN over the years. —

Erik Wemple, Washington Post, 19 July 2022 Speculation about why this might be so tends to reflect the hobbyhorse of the speculator. —

Zoë Heller, The New Yorker, 4 Apr. 2022 Donbas has served variously as a bargaining chip with Western powers, a cudgel to hold over them, a hobbyhorse for the home audience and an albatross. —

New York Times, 16 Jan. 2022 In Finland, hobbyhorse riding, according to The Wall Street Journal, is a growing sport that involves young girls riding fake horses, made of cloth or plastic horse heads attached to sticks. —

Eliza Huber, refinery29.com, 9 May 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hobbyhorse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.