HOBO (hoboes)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: hoboes   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hobo mean? 

• HOBO (noun)
  The noun HOBO has 2 senses:

1. a vagrant

2. a worker who moves around and works temporarily in different places

  Familiarity information: HOBO used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOBO (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A vagrant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bum; hobo; tramp

Context example:

he tried to help the really down-and-out bums

Hypernyms ("hobo" is a kind of...):

clochard; drifter; floater; vagabond; vagrant (a wanderer who has no established residence or visible means of support)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hobo"):

dosser; street person (someone who sleeps in any convenient place)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A worker who moves around and works temporarily in different places

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

hobo; migrant worker

Hypernyms ("hobo" is a kind of...):

temp; temporary; temporary worker (a worker (especially in an office) hired on a temporary basis)

 Context examples 

Sometimes I wish I was a hobo.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Nope," was the answer, "but I can hobo all right, all right."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The children of the neighborhood recovered from the awe of the grand carriage which once had visited Martin, and from safe distances they called him "hobo" and "bum."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He still slept in his little room at Maria's, but the sight of his new clothes caused the neighborhood children to cease from calling him hobo and tramp from the roofs of woodsheds and over back fences.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Martin looked at him searchingly for a moment, then cried: By God, I think you're right! Better a hobo than a beast of toil. Why, man, you'll live. And that's more than you ever did before.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But he's a confirmed hobo.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Martin dispensed royal largess, inviting everybody up, farm-hands, a stableman, and the gardener's assistant from the hotel, the barkeeper, and the furtive hobo who slid in like a shadow and like a shadow hovered at the end of the bar.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)