Word.ws English Dictionary

hoboism

hoboism noun: the lifestyle or practices of hobos; vagrancy.

Noun

hoboism (uncountable)

  1. The lifestyle or practices of hobos; vagrancy.
    • Hoboism cannot be cured or prevented by makeshifts or by local measures and efforts, although community interest naturally is vital in dealing with a problem that comes home to every community.1923, Benjamin C. Marsh, “For the Community to Do”, in The World tomorrow, volume 6
    • The reasons why Kerouac himself gave up his hoboism seem wide-ranging: a commitment to care for his mother once his work became commercially successful; the increasing difficulties of such journeys; […]2012, Sharin N. Elkholy, The Philosophy of the Beats, page 43

Origin of hoboism

From hobo + -ism.

Questions about hoboism

What does hoboism mean?
Hoboism means the lifestyle or practices of hobos; vagrancy.
What part of speech is hoboism?
Hoboism is a noun.

Words near hoboism in the dictionary

  1. hobohemian
  2. hobohemians
  3. hobohemias
  4. hoboing
  5. hoboish
  6. hoboism
  7. Hoboken
  8. Hobokenite
  9. hobolike
  10. hobos
  11. hobosexual

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hoboism (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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