hobbledehoy

plural hobbledehoys

1. An awkward adolescent youth.

   A man rarely carries his shyness past the hobbledehoy period.

   1886, Jerome K Jerome, “On being shy”, in Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

   5 more examples

   I met a proper vpright youth, onely for a little ſtooping in the ſhoulders: […] & hee tolde me there was a fat filthy ballet-maker, that ſhould haue once been his Iourneyman to the trade: who liu’d about the towne; and ten to one, but he had thus terribly abuſed me & my Taberer: […] I found him about the bankſide, ſitting at a play, I deſired to ſpeake with him, […] Name my accuſer ſaith he, or I defye thee Kemp at the quart ſtaffe. I told him, & all his anger turned to laughter: ſwearing it did him good to haue ill words of a hoddy doddy, a habber de hoy, a chicken, a ſquib, a ſquall: […]

   1600, William Kempe, Kemps nine daies vvonder

   […]all the men, boys, and hobbledehoys attached to the farm[…]

   1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “chapter 28”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC

   Two hobbledehoys were standing by the forge staring in a bovine way at the proceedings.

   1895, H G Wells, “chapter 12”, in The Wonderful Visit

   And though it do take—how many years, Bob?—five years to turn a lirruping hobble-de-hoy chap into a solemn preaching man with no corrupt passions, they'll do it, if it can be done [...]

   1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, “PART 1, CHAPTER 3”, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1896, →OCLC

   He was a fair boy, with round pink cheeks, with his hair parted on one side, and a shade of down on his lip. He looked frankly what he was — a hobbledehoy — though he made great efforts to seem grown up.

   1912, Romain Rolland, “Morning, 2”, in Jean-Christophe