Hence Hobbledehoyish and Hobbledehoyhood. [[322]]
1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 12 (2nd Ed.). When Master Daw full fourteen years had told, He grew, as it is term’d, hobbedyhoyish; For Cupidons and Fairies much too old, For Calibans and Devils much too boyish.
1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots, Apr. From boyhood until hobbadyhoyhood (which I take to be about the sixteenth year of the life of a young man).
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xlii. A half-grown, or hobbadehoyish footman, so to speak, walked after them.
Hobbledejee, subs. (old).—A pace between a walk and a run; a jog-trot.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Hobbler, subs. (nautical).—A coast-man, half smuggler, half handyman; an unlicensed pilot. Also a landsman acting as tow-Jack.—Smyth. Also (Isle of Man), a boatman.
1887. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 226. An’ the hobblers there was terr’ble divarted.
Hobby, subs. (old).—A hackney; a horse in common use.
1606. Return from Parnassus, ii., 6 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 151). An’t please you, your hobby will meet you at the lane’s end. Idem (p. 154). Is not my master an absolute villain that loves his hawk, his hobby, and his greyhound more than any mortal creature? Idem (p. 145). Sirrah, boy, hath the groom saddled my hunting hobby?