Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday April 25, 2001
hobbledehoy \HOB-uhl-dee-hoy\ , noun:
An awkward, gawky young fellow.
For early on, girls become aware -- as much from their fathers' anguished bellows of "You're not going out dressed like that, Miss" as from the buffoonish reactions of the spotty hobbledehoys at the end-of-term disco -- of the power of clothes to seduce.
-- Jane Shilling, "Soft-centred punk", Times (London), October 27, 2000
His memories, even only reveries, of incomparable women, made me feel like a hulking hobbledehoy.
-- Edith Anderson, Love in Exile
Unfortunately, they have to contend with ignorant hobbledehoys who, on seeing these rows of shingle heaps, feel compelled to jump on them.
-- Susan Campbell, "He grows seakale on the seashore", Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1999
The origin of hobbledehoy is unknown, though it perhaps derives from hobble, from the awkward movements of a clumsy adolescent.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for hobbledehoy
