Word.ws English Dictionary

hobbles

hobbles is the plural of hobble.

hobbles is the third-person singular simple present indicative of hobble.

Meaning of hobble

Noun

hobble (plural hobbles)

  1. (in plural) One of the short straps tied between the legs of unfenced horses, allowing them to wander short distances but preventing them from running off.
  2. An unsteady, off-balance step.
    • We made it and we hobbled up the stairs. Or I hobbled. My sons didn't hobble, I hobbled.2017, Sam Shepard, chapter 37, in Spy of the First Person, →ISBN, page 82
  3. (archaic, informal) A difficult situation; a scrape.
    • "Saddle a horse—any horse—only let him be sure and fleet," cried Ashwoode, "and I'll pay you his price thrice over!"
      "Well, it's a bargain," replied the groom, promptly; "I don't like to see a gentleman caught in a hobble, if I can help him out of it. […]1845, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The Cock and Anchor
  4. (Newfoundland, UK, dialectal) An odd job; a piece of casual work.

See all 9 meanings of hobble

Phrases with hobbles

Questions about hobbles

What is hobbles the plural of?
Hobbles is the plural of hobble.

Words near hobbles in the dictionary

  1. hobbledehoys
  2. hobbler
  3. hobblerope
  4. hobbleropes
  5. hobblers
  6. hobbles
  7. hobbleshaw
  8. hobbleshaws
  9. hobblesome
  10. hobblet
  11. hobbletehoy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hobbles (page history and authors); hobble (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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Cite this entry: “hobbles.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hobbles. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.