subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A whim; a fancy; a favourite pursuit. Hence HOBBYHORSICAL = strongly attached to a particular fad.
1769. STERNE, Tristram Shandy (1793), ch. vii., p. 18. Have they not had their HOBBY-HORSES?
d. 1768. STERNE, Letters (1793), letter 19, p. 65. ’Tis in fact my HOBBY-HORSE.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. HOBBY HORSE. A man’s favourite amusement, or study, is called his HOBBY HORSE.
1893. Westminster Gazette, 15 March, p. 9, c. 1. We quarrel a bit—he is so HOBBY-HORSICAL, you can’t avoid it—and then we make friends again.
2. (colloquial).—A rantipole girl; a wench; a wanton.
1594. SHAKESPEARE, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iii. 1. Arm. Call’st thou my love ‘HOBBY-HORSE’? Moth. No, master; the HOBBY-HORSE is but a colt, and your love, perhaps a hackney. Ibid. (1604), Winter’s Tale, i. 2. They say my wife’s a HOBBY-HORSE.
3. (old).—A witless and unmannerly lout.
1609. JONSON, Epicœne, or the Silent Woman, iv., 2. Daw. … here be in presence have tasted of her favours. Cler. What a neighing HOBBY-HORSE is this!
Verb (old).—To romp.
