Noun

Singular hobby

Plural hobbies

hobby (plural hobbies)

1. An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time.

   I like to collect stamps from different countries as a hobby.

2. (horses) An extinct breed of horse native to the British Isles, also known as the Irish Hobby

Synonyms

• (activity done for enjoyment in spare time): avocation, pastime

Derived terms

• hobbyist n

Related terms

• hobbyhorse n
• hobelar/hobeler

A hobby is an activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure or relaxation, often in one's spare time.

Development of hobbies into other ventures

Whilst some hobbies strike many people as trivial or boring, hobbyists have found something compelling and entertaining about them. Much early scientific research was, in effect, a hobby of the wealthy; more recently, Linux began as a student's hobby. A hobby may not be as trivial as it appears at a time when it has relatively few followers. Thus a British conservationist recalls that when seen wearing field glasses at a London station in the 1930s he was asked if he was going to the (horse) races. The anecdote indicates that at the time an interest in nature was not widely perceived as a credible hobby. Practitioners of that hobby went on to become the germs of the conservation movement that flourished in Britain from 1965 onwards and became a global political movement within a generation. Conversely, the hobby of aircraft spotting probably originated as part of a serious activity designed to detect arriving waves of enemy aircraft entering English airspace during World War II. In peacetime it usually has no such practical or social purpose.