Hobo

//ˈhoʊ.boʊ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A wandering homeless person, especially (historical) one illegally travelling by rail or (derogatory) a penniless, unemployed bum. Canada, US

    "He’d heard the word hobo used for travelers, heard it was short for homeward bound, or homeless boy, or Hoboken having something to do with New Jersey."

  2. 2
    a worker who moves around and works temporarily in different places wordnet
  3. 3
    Any migratory laborer, whether homeless or not. Canada, US
  4. 4
    a vagrant wordnet
  5. 5
    A kind of large handbag.

    "Avoid bulky styles such as duffle sacks, buckets, doctors' satchels, and hobos."

Verb
  1. 1
    To be a hobo, tramp, bum etc. intransitive

    "Joe idly hoboed through half the country till he realized hoboing never gets you anywhere in life."

Synonyms

All synonyms
trampalienarabbagmanbeach bumbeachcomber

Example

More examples

"Luther Gette, also known by his hobo name as "Luther the Jet," has been riding trains legally and illegally for most of his life."

Etymology

Unknown. Possibly a contraction of ho, boy or the dialectal English term hawbuck (“lout, clumsy fellow, country bumpkin”).

Related phrases

hobo baghobo egghobo junglehobo spiderhobo stewhobo stovelaptop hobo

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.