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'Obby 'Oss

'Obby 'Oss noun: a male dancer dressed as a horse who cavorts through the town pretending to capture young maidens, as part of a May Day festival in Padstow, Cornwall, England.

'obby 'oss: a male dancer dressed as a horse who cavorts through the town pretending to capture young maidens,...
Image: SGBailey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

'Obby 'Oss (plural 'Obby 'Osses)

  1. (UK) A male dancer dressed as a horse who cavorts through the town pretending to capture young maidens, as part of a May Day festival in Padstow, Cornwall, England.

Forms of 'Obby 'Oss

plural'Obby 'Osses

Origin of 'Obby 'Oss

From hobby horse, with h-dropping characteristic of West Country English. Compare hoss.

Questions about 'Obby 'Oss

What does 'Obby 'Oss mean?
'Obby 'Oss means a male dancer dressed as a horse who cavorts through the town pretending to capture young maidens, as part of a May Day festival in Padstow, Cornwall, England.
What part of speech is 'Obby 'Oss?
'Obby 'Oss is a noun.
What is the plural of 'Obby 'Oss?
The plural of 'Obby 'Oss is 'Obby 'Osses.

Words near 'Obby 'Oss in the dictionary

  1. 'nstead
  2. 'NSYNCer
  3. 'NSYNCers
  4. 'nuff
  5. 'nuff said
  6. 'Obby 'Oss
  7. 'Obby 'Osses
  8. 'og
  9. 'ogs
  10. 'old
  11. 'Ole

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 'Obby 'Oss (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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