Definition of "hobbyhorse" [hobbyhorse]

• A child's riding toy that consists of a long stick with an imitation horse's head on one end. (noun)
• See rocking horse. (noun)
• A figure of a horse worn attached to the waist of a mummer, as in a morris dance. (noun)
• A person wearing such a figure. (noun)
• A favorite hobby. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Something else stirred in his memory, the name by which Malcolm had used to call his hobbyhorse, some ringing name ... but he had forgotten."
• "I might well complain about a "hobbyhorse" sermon, also-- especially if it was made possible by using only the OT/Hebrew Scriptures reading and not also at least the Gospel if not the Epistle."
• "Oil becomes too expensive to extract, and alternative energies can't maintain our fossil-fuel-dependent lifestyle — is the hobbyhorse of widely read collapsists James Howard Kunstler and Dmitry Orlov."