hobo
UK /ˈhəʊ.bəʊ/ · US /ˈhoʊ.boʊ/ noun, verb
Forms hobos hoboes hoboing hoboed
- noun (Canada, US) A wandering homeless person, especially (historical) one illegally travelling by rail or (derogatory) a penniless, unemployed bum.
- noun (Canada, US) Any migratory laborer, whether homeless or not.
- noun A kind of large handbag.
- verb (intransitive, perhaps pejorative) To be a hobo, tramp, bum etc. “Joe idly hoboed through half the country till he realized hoboing never gets you anywhere in life.”
Synonyms
Etymology
Unknown. Possibly a contraction of ho, boy or the dialectal English term hawbuck (“lout, clumsy fellow, country bumpkin”).
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hobo”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details