hobby-horse (2 not pre-S.)
1.
in the
morris-dance, a figure of a horse made of light
material and fastened round the waist of a
performer, who went through various antics; only in
quotation from a ballad (perhaps satirizing Puritan
opposition to ‘May-games’)
LLL. III. i. 32
“The hobby-horse is
forgot,”
Ham. III. ii. 144-5
2.
frivolous fellow,
buffoon Ado III. ii. 75; light
woman LLL. III. i. 33, Wint. I. ii. 276 (Ff
“HolyHorse”),
Oth. IV. i. 158.
