| 释义 |
▪ I. hobble, v.|ˈhɒb(ə)l|
Also 4 hobelen, 4–8 hoble, 5 hobyll, 6 hobbil, -yll.
[Recorded from 14th c.: app. cognate with Du. hobbelen ‘to toss, rock from side to side, ride on a hobby-horse, halt, stammer, stutter’, which appears in Teuthonista 1475 as a synonym of wyntelen, ‘hoblen, volutare, volvere’, and is taken as dim. of hobben to toss or rock (as a boat on the billows): cf. sense 1.
Cf. also High Germ. dial. hoppeln, in Bavaria, to move up and down like a bad rider on a trotting horse, in Switz. to make clownish jumps, also, to jolt, as a cart over stones, iterative of hoppen to hop, referred by some to an original *hobbôn, by-form of *hoppôn to hop (Paul & Br. Beitr. IX. 163). But both form- and sense-history offer many obscurities; in particular, it may be doubted whether some of the trans. senses really belong to the same word.]
1. intr. To move unsteadily up and down in riding, floating, etc.; to rise and fall on the surge, as a boat; to rock from side to side, to wabble.
13..Sir Tristr. 1161 Tristremes schip was ȝare..Þe hauen he gan outfare..Niȝen woukes and mare He hobled vp and doun; A wind to wil him bare To..an hauen in irland. 1375Barbour Bruce iv. 447 Thai..held thame thair so lang hobland, That of thre batis drownyt twa. 1545R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 133 Yf the shafte be lyght, it wyl starte, if it be heuye, it wil hoble. a1605Montgomerie Flyting w. Polwart 279 On Alhallow euen, When our good nighbours doe ryd..Some hobland on ane hempstalke, hoveand to the hight. 1813–17Cogan Eth. Quest Note B (R.), His hoop..If it hobbles in its motion, upon perfectly level ground, it cannot be a perfect circle.
2. To walk with an unsteady rising and falling gait, as one whose limbs give way under him; to walk lamely and with difficulty; to limp.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 113 Out of heuene in-to helle hobleden faste. c1394P. Pl. Crede 106 We haunten none tauernes ne hobelen abouten; At marketts & myracles we medleþ vs nevere. c1460Towneley Myst. (E.E.T.S.) xvii. 6 Lo! so I hobyll all on held, That vnethes may I walk for eld. 1508Dunbar Flyting w. Kennedie 212 Upoun thy botingis hobland hard as horne. 1530Palsgr. 586/1, I hoble, or halte, or lomber, as a horse dothe. 1601? Marston Pasquil & Kath. i. 136 Some old Beldame hobbling ore my graue. 1666Lond. Gaz. 3 Sept., Many cripples were seen hobbling about not knowing which way to go. 1728Morgan Algiers I. iv. 99 In stony ways the poor creatures [camels] hobble very much. 1781F. Burney Lett. 15 May, I now hobble about the garden with a stick. 1871L. Stephen Playgr. Europe xiii, The..old gentleman..now hobbles about on rheumatic joints.
b. To dance, to bob (with an implication of clumsiness or imperfection). Also trans.[Cf. the Germ. dial. equivalents above.] 1535Lyndesay Satyre 5624 Menstrell, blaw vp ane brawll of France; Let se quha hobbils best. 1712Budgell Spect. No. 301 ⁋1 The same Folly..makes Clodius, who was a celebrated Dancer at five and twenty, still love to hobble in a Minuet, tho' he is past Threescore. 1753Foote Eng. in Paris ii. Wks. 1799 I. 48 I'll just hobble over a minuet by way of exercise. 1762Goldsm. Cit. W. lxxviii, At sixty [she] shall hobble a rigadoon when she can scarcely hobble out without a crutch.
3. fig. To proceed irregularly and haltingly in action or speech; (of verse) to have an irregular or halting rhythm, to ‘limp’. Also trans. to utter haltingly.
1522Skelton Why nat to Court 523 His Latyne tonge dothe hobbyll, He doth but cloute and cobbill In Tullis faculte. a1568R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 146 Carmen Exametrum doth rather trotte & hoble, than runne smothly in our English tong. 1645Milton Colast. Wks. (1851) 351 His first Argument, all but what hobbles to no purpos is this. 1717Prior Alma i. 162 While you Pindaric truths rehearse, She hobbles in alternate verse. c1802Canning Poet. Wks. (1827) 45 When his speeches hobble vilely, What ‘Hear hims’ burst from brother Hiley. 1813Hobhouse Journ. Albania (ed. 2) 1000 The Caimacam..proceeded to speak to the Ambassador, but hobbled repeatedly, and was prompted..by the Grand Signior. Ibid. 1001 The Caimacam..began hobbling another speech.
4. trans. To embarrass, perplex, foil, nonplus: in Sc. habble.
1762Goldsm. Cit. W. cxix, I could give no account of myself (that was the thing that always hobbled me). a1823in Byron Juan xi. xix. note, You'll be hobbled in making a Clout. 1825Jamieson, Habble, to confuse, or reduce to a state of perplexity, Roxb. To be habbled, to be perplexed or nonplussed, to be foiled in any undertaking, ibid.
5. slang. To take into custody, ‘nab’.
1812J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Hobbled, taken up, or in custody.
6. To cause to hobble or limp. lit. and fig.
1870Lowell Study Wind., Chaucer (1886) 243 Sometimes they thrust in a word or words that hobble the verse. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 109 On his feet are a pair of ammunition boots that fairly hobble him.
7. To tie or fasten together the legs of (a horse or other beast) to prevent it from straying, kicking, etc. [In this sense hopple occurs earlier.]
1831R. Cox Adv. Columb. Riv. I. 155 note, Their two fore legs were tied together. This we called hobbling. 1835W. Irving Crayon Misc., Tour Prairies xi. (1863) 61 The horses were now hobbled, that is to say, their fore legs were fettered with cords or leathern straps. 1835J. P. Kennedy Horse Shoe R. xvii. (1860) 206 The horses were hobbled, by a cord from the fore to the hind foot. 1892E. Reeves Homeward Bound 211 Hundreds of cattle lying down, their fore legs hobbled with rope.
Hence hobbled ppl. a. (in sense 7).
1860Dickens Uncomm. Trav. xi, What tramp children do I see here..making a toy of the hobbled old horse? 1878M. E. Braddon Open Verd. xlv. 302 [She] had hung upon him like a log on a hobbled donkey.
▪ II. hobble, n.|ˈhɒb(ə)l|
[f. prec. vb.]
1. The action of hobbling; an uneven, clumsy, infirm gait, with sinking and rising of the body. Also fig. of utterance.
1727Swift Gulliver i. iv, We can plainly discover one of his heels higher than the other; which gives him a hobble in his gait. 1750Chesterfield Lett. (1774) III. 42 There is still a considerable hitch or hobble in your enunciation. 1871C. Gibbon Lack of Gold i, His pace was a species of hobble. 1874Wood Nat. Hist. 7 The walk of the Orangoutan is little better than an awkward hobble.
2. fig. An awkward or perplexing situation from which extrication is difficult. dial. and colloq. In Sc. habble, a difficulty, a perplexity.
1775Ash, Hobble,..a kind of blunder. 1776Foote Capuchin ii. Take care what you say! you see what a hobble we had like to have got into. 1799G. Washington Lett. Writ. 1893 XIV. 193, I think you Wise men of the East, have got yourselves in a hobble. 1807Tannahill Poems 41 (Jam.) Else, like the hero of our fable, We'll oft be plunged into a habble. 1820Byron Blues i. 64 Pray get out of this hobble as fast as you can. 1866Sat. Rev. 10 Nov. 575 We had got into such a hobble, there really seemed no way out of it save by betaking ourselves to spiritual weapons.
3. A rope, strap, clog, or other apparatus used for hobbling a horse or other beast (see hobble v. 7); transf. a fetter; = hopple n.1 (Usually in pl.) Also (chiefly Austral.) hobble chain.
1831Youatt Horse vii. (1847) 158 The Horse must be cast and secured, and the limb..removed from the hobbles and extended. 1842–4H. Stephens Bk. of Farm (1849) I. 525/1 The hobbles are then placed on the hind fetlocks [of the cow] to keep the heels down. 1850Smedley F. Fairlegh li. 449 A picturesque donkey, whose fore-feet being fastened together by..‘hobbles’, advanced by a series of jumps. 1901‘M. Franklin’ My Brilliant Career (1966) ix. 52 The sound of camp-bells and jingle of hobble chains..had come to these men. 1928‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country xv. 272 He remembered the hobble-chains behind the old stable. 1959Listener 15 Jan. 113/1 In a brawl, they're deadly. Anything goes—spurs, hobble chains, the lot.
4. In full hobble-skirt. A close-fitting skirt usually confined by a wide band below the knees and above the ankles.
1911Smart Set Mar. 40 A hobble skirt is an awful habit to get into. 1912Punch 3 Apr. 255/1 The continued success of the hobble..has..restricted the use of textile material. 1918Wireless World Oct. 372 A feminine atrocity in a cerise muslin sheath on ‘hobble-skirt’ lines. 1920M. Asquith Autobiog. I. 221 From the hoop to the hobble is not a more violent change than from the riding-hats of 1894 to the riding-hats of 1917. 1921C. Torr Small Talk at Wreyland ii. 69, I said, ‘You don't go in for hobble-skirts, I see.’ 1969H. E. Bates Vanished World vii. 71 Ladies in flowered hats and hobble skirts. |