Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Hobson's choice   Listen
noun
Hobson's choice  n.  A choice without an alternative; the thing offered or nothing. Note: It is said to have had its origin in the name of one Hobson, at Cambridge, England, who let horses, and required every customer to take in his turn the horse which stood next the stable door.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Hobson's choice" Quotes from Famous Books



... Simbirsk, Tiflis, Warsaw and other centres, to German colonies scattered over Russia and to religious sects. During the Manchurian campaign the Commercial Treaty drafted in Berlin, and at first denounced by Count Witte as ruinous to his country, was agreed to and signed.[31] It was Hobson's choice. After that the empire, which had already been a favourite and fruitful field for Germany's experiments, became one of the most copious sources of her national prosperity. Commercial push and political ...
— England and Germany • Emile Joseph Dillon

... rendered himself famous by furnishing the students with horses; and, making it an unalterable rule that every horse should have an equal portion of rest as well as labor, he would never let one out of its turn; hence the celebrated saying, 'Hobson's Choice: this, or none.'" Milton has perpetuated his fame in two whimsical epitaphs, which may be found among his ...
— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall



Words linked to "Hobson's choice" :   alternative, option, choice



Copyright © 2026 Free-Translator.com