Standard Lemma guide

hobbledehoy

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /ˈhɒbəldihɔɪ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

An awkward adolescent youth.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

an awkward bad-mannered adolescent boy

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: young person, youth, younker, spring chicken

History

Etymology

From Scots. Compare dialectal English hobbledygee (“(with a) limping movement”); also French hobereau (“country squire”), English hobby, and Old French hoi (“today”); the original sense may have been "an upstart of today".

Across languages

Translations

7 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: дангалак (dangalak) — an awkward adolescent youth
  • Polish: młokos — an awkward adolescent youth
  • Polish: wyrostek — an awkward adolescent youth
  • Russian: неуклю́жий подро́сток (neukljúžij podróstok) — an awkward adolescent youth
  • Turkish: toy ergen — an awkward adolescent youth
  • Turkish: yeni yetme — an awkward adolescent youth
  • Turkish: yeniyetme — an awkward adolescent youth