(informal) concerning oneself excessively with a pet
theory,
notion or activity. Now, I'm not
riding a
hobbyhorse in my own resentments, but I will tell you this
brief anecdote.
- Study and Intention (18 Aug. 66) (informal) concerning oneself excessively with a favorite
theory,
notion or activity. From
hobbyhorse, a child's toy consisting of a
stick with a horse's head at one end and straddled in a
pretense of
riding. It will be buried somewhere in the
notes, because it's not emphasized, and then he's-you're
given the
wrong reason for the
recovery and that makes it very
hard to relocate what was going on in this
particular thing, and we're not
riding a
hobbyhorse trying to apply
Scientology to it.
-A Review of Study (22 Sept. 64) to be (excessively) devoted to a favorite or cherished
interest, pastime,
subject, etc. The
phrase comes from a child's toy imitating a horse's head placed on a
stick which
children pretend to
ride like a real horse. (Hobby is another
term for a small horse.) In the seventeenth century the
habit of
children riding their
hobbyhorse to the abandonment of other toys became extended to men being
fixated on or
obsessed with some
subject or
action to the exclusion of others.