histriomastix, a severe critic of playwrights. Lady Alimony, i. 2 (Trills), where the epithet of ‘crop-eared’ is prefixed. The allusion is to the book entitled ‘Histriomastix, The Players’ Scourge’, by W. Prynne, published in 1633; for which he lost both ears, and was pilloried. L. histrio, an actor + Gk. μάστιξ, a scourge.
hizz, to hiss. King Lear, iii. 6. 17; Earle, Microcosmographie, § 25 (ed. Arber, p. 46).
ho, a cry calling on one to stop; cessation, intermission, limit. Phr. out of all ho, out of all limit, beyond all moderate bounds, Greene, Friar Bacon, iv. 2 (1733); scene 11. 73 (W.); p. 174, col. 2 (D.). In Yorkshire they say, ‘There is no ho with him’, i.e. there is no moderation, he is not to be restrained. ‘Out of all ho’ in the sense of ‘immoderately’ is a common phrase in the west Midlands. See EDD. (s.v. Ho, sb.1 5). ME. ho, cessation, in phr. withouten ho (Chaucer, Tr. and Cr. ii. 1083). See Nares.
hob, a sprite, hobgoblin. Mirror for Mag., Glendour, st. 8; ‘From elves, hobs, and fairies . . . From fire-drakes and fiends . . . Defend us, good heaven!’, Fletcher, Mons. Thomas, iv. 6. For the folk-lore connected with the sprite called Hob, see EDD. Hob is a familiar or rustic abbreviation of the name Robert or Robin, cp. Coriolanus, ii. 3. 123, ‘To beg of Hob and Dick’. See Nares.
hoball, a term of abuse. Udall, Roister Doister, iii. 3 (Merygreek); ‘An hobbel, cobbel, dullard, haebes, barbus’, Levins, Manipulus. In prov. use in the north, meaning a fool, a dull, stupid person, a blockhead, see EDD. (s.v. Hobbil, sb.1).
hobby, a small kind of hawk; ‘Hobreau, the hawke tearmed a hobby’, Cotgrave; Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, st. 195; hobies, pl., Sir T. Elyot, Governour, cap. xviii. ME. hoby, ‘alaudarius’ (Cath. Angl.); OF. hobe, see Hatzfeld (s.v. Hobereau).
hobby, a small or middle-sized horse; ‘Hobin, a hobbie, a little ambling horse’, Cotgrave; hobby-headed, shaggy-headed like a hobby or small pony, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, ii. 3 (Maria). ‘Hobby’ is in prov. use in many parts of England, see EDD. (s.v. Hobby, sb.1 1), also in Ireland, see Joyce, English as we speak it in Ireland, 274.
hobby-horse. In the morris-dance and on the stage, a figure of a horse, made of light material, and fastened about the waist of the performer, who imitated the antics of a skittish horse; also, the performer. L. L. L. iii. 1. 30; Beaumont and Fl., Knt. of the B. Pestle, iv. 5 (Ralph).
hobler, for hobbler, a child’s top that wobbles, or spins unsteadily. Hence, a useless toy, Lyly, Mother Bombie, v. 3 (Bedunenus).
hob-man-blind, a name for the game of blind-man’s-buff. Two Angry Women, in Hazlitt’s Dodsley, vii. 364; Heywood, Wise Wom. Hogsdon, iii. (Works, v. 310). ‘Hobman’ in Yorkshire is a name for a sprite, hobgoblin, see EDD. (s.v. Hob, sb.1 4 (2)).