Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who wanders from place to place without a permanent home or a means of livelihood.
  • noun A migrant worker.
  • noun A large, crescent-shaped woman's handbag with a single shoulder strap and usually a zippered top.
  • intransitive verb To live or wander like a vagrant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A tramp.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun United States A professional tramp; one who spends his life traveling from place to place, esp. by stealing rides on trains, and begging for a living.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A homeless, usually penniless person, in some way associated with a life along the rails.
  • noun A migratory laborer
  • noun pejorative A tramp, vagabond; hence bum
  • verb intransitive To be a hobo, tramp, bum etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a disreputable vagrant

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Possibly a contraction of ho, boy or English dialect hawbuck ("lout, clumsy fellow, country bumpkin").

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Examples

  • Meanwhile, enigmatic women dressed in hobo chic execute dance and aerial moves.

    Creative Cirko De Mente evokes . . . well, it's hard to say Celia Wren 2010

  • Then you have some hobo from the female species on here begging people to vote democratic or independent in 2012.

    U.S. House passes $447 billion government spending bill 2009

  • Then there are places like the quarries at Rutland, Vermont, where the hobo is exploited, the unearned energy in his body, which he has accumulated by "battering on the drag" or "slamming gates," being extracted for the benefit of that particular community.

    Some Adventures With the Police 1908

  • Then there are places like the quarries at Rutland, Vermont, where the hobo is exploited, the unearned energy in his body, which he has accumulated by "battering on the drag" or "slamming gates," being extracted for the benefit of that particular community.

    Bulls 1907

  • Then there are places like the quarries at Rutland, Vermont, where the hobo is exploited, the unearned energy in his body, which he has accumulated by "battering on the drag" or "slamming gates," being extracted for the benefit of that particular community.

    Bulls 1907

  • I didn't see Bat Guano use the term "hobo" - that seems to be your little editorial addition to the conversation.

    Palin Supporter To Black Sound Man: "Sit Down, Boy" 2009

  • At the same time, as a lover of pubs and clubs, gigs and parties, I'd have to say that the vibrant indie scene focused around the West End (Glasgow's East Village) quite simply rocks, at least as far as this "pomo boho homo hobo" is concerned.

    An A-Z Of This Blog Hal Duncan 2007

  • At the same time, as a lover of pubs and clubs, gigs and parties, I'd have to say that the vibrant indie scene focused around the West End (Glasgow's East Village) quite simply rocks, at least as far as this "pomo boho homo hobo" is concerned.

    Archive 2007-12-01 Hal Duncan 2007

  • alongside their own label hobo, here you'll find international designers from the far reaches of denmark to brazil. may not post new threads you may not

    superfuture 2010

  • And while there are always going to be those who cry foul at any depiction of a woman as a sex object, the hobo is the least likely sex object in the history of cinema.

    Turnstyle: Bindlestiffs: A Raunchy Teen Comedy Made By Teens Turnstyle 2012

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