Word.ws English Dictionary

hobbling

hobbling is the gerund of hobble.

hobbling is the present participle and gerund 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

Forms of hobbling

pluralhobblings

Origin of hobbling

From hobble + -ing.

Questions about hobbling

What is hobbling the gerund of?
Hobbling is the gerund of hobble.

Words near hobbling in the dictionary

  1. hobbleshaws
  2. hobblesome
  3. hobblet
  4. hobbletehoy
  5. hobbletehoys
  6. hobbling
  7. hobblingly
  8. hobblings
  9. hobbly
  10. hobbock
  11. hobbocks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hobbling (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: “hobbling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hobbling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.