hobbyhorse

get on (one's) hobby-horse

To frequently or incessantly talk or complain about a subject, topic, or issue in which one is excessively interested. "Hobby-horse" can also be spelled as a single word." Ah, here we go again. Once grandpa gets on his hobby-horse about the government, there's no stopping him! Uh oh, sounds like Janet is getting on her hobbyhorse again about the need for healthcare reform.
See also: get, on

hobby-horse

A subject, topic, or issue about which one frequently or incessantly talks, expounds, or complains. The term can also be spelled as a single word. Ah, here we go again. Once grandpa gets on his hobby-horse about the government, there's no stopping him! Uh oh, sounds like Janet is on her hobbyhorse again about the need for healthcare reform.

on (one's) hobby-horse

Frequently or incessantly talking about a subject, topic, or issue in which one is excessively interested. "Hobby-horse" can also be spelled as a single word. Ah, here we go again. Once Grandpa gets on his hobby-horse about the government, there's no stopping him! Uh oh, sounds like Janet is on her hobbyhorse again about the need for healthcare reform.
See also: on

ride (one's) hobby-horse

To frequently or incessantly talk or complain about a subject, topic, or issue in which one is excessively interested. "Hobby-horse" can also be spelled as a single word. Ah, here we go again. Once grandpa starts riding his hobby-horse about the government, there's no stopping him! Uh oh, sounds like Janet is starting to ride her hobbyhorse again about the need for healthcare reform.
See also: ride
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

ride one's hobbyhorse, to

To dwell on one’s favorite theory or project. The term alludes to the popular children’s toy, a stick mounted with a horse’s head on which youngsters “ride.” It was transferred to pet schemes and ideas by the early seventeenth century. “Almost every person hath some hobby horse or other wherein he prides himself,” wrote Sir Matthew Hale in 1676. See also ax to grind.
See also: ride
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • get on (one's) hobby-horse
  • hobby
  • ride (one's) hobby-horse
  • on (one's) hobby-horse
  • hobby-horse
  • a hobby horse
  • rag about (someone or something)
  • chitter-chatter
  • federal
  • a federal case
References in periodicals archive
In 2012, a filmmaker, Selma Vilhunen, stumbled across internet discussion boards used by hobbyhorse enthusiasts and was enraptured.
Finland's hobbyhorse girls, once a secret society, now prance in public
This whole episode brings me back to an old hobbyhorse of mine: the need for all Israeli schoolchildren, Jews and Arabs, to learn the history of the country.
Storm over Hebron
The executive has made the abolition of banking secrecy its hobbyhorse. It notes that cooperation with the United States on FATCA should be very useful in the context of "the EU's efforts to promote global application of the automatic exchange of information for tax purposes".
TAXATION : FATCA: FIVE EU STATES WORK OUT COMPROMISE WITH WASHINGTON
His statement that the shake-up will cement the firm grip of the rich on elite universities shows that he is unaware of the programmes undertaken by those universities to promote access to all social groups, and it appears that he is just riding his usual hobbyhorse. Fergus Molloy, L31
Universities won't face divide; emails &letter's
They tease his or her understanding, sometimes pulling it deeper into the unknown, sometimes merely providing the reader a hobbyhorse to whip toward a familiar destination--usually eros or Thanatos, in my experience.
Poetry and Biography
Not like our red hobbyhorse that I can ride whenever I want.
Childhood Revisited
With no sensible policies to offer, Ataka has seized on opposition to Turkey joining the European Union as a rather shaky hobbyhorse to plod forward to next year's polls.
Warning: politics ahead
Copley is often unintelligible as "a functioning lunatic", who paints his face blue and pretends to be Braveheart, riding a hobbyhorse into battle against the English.
All guns blazing; THE A-TEAM (12A, 118 MINS) 5/10
"In French it means hobbyhorse. In German it means good-bye ...
Zurich's anti-art movement: ninety-four years after its manic inception, let's take a look back at Zurich's own anti-war, anti-class and anti-art movement, which celebrated anarchy and pandemonium: Dadaism
It formed the basis of the pigment that colored the wrappers of sweets, and the dye in the paint that made little Billy's hobbyhorse glow all the brighter.
The cure that killed
Over the weekend of May 28-31, 600 villagers act as Grenadiers, a hobbyhorse, a fool and peasants, whilst scouring Combe Martin for the 'Earl of Rone'.
Hunt the Earl - and then 'shoot' him!
Several amusing scenes find his charisma in full operation as he jovially commands conversation from high atop one hobbyhorse or another.
Under Her Spell: Roberto Rossellini in India
The Posthuman Dada Guide is arranged alphabetically for quick reference, with entries such as "dada-the word." Tristan Tzara's claim that he found it is backed up by its existence as the word da in Romanian and Russian, meaning "yes," thus "yesyes." Hulsenbeck claimed that he discovered the word by opening the Petit Larousse and finding the word dada, a French word for a children's hobbyhorse. Tzara and Lenin play several games of chess in a row.
Andrei Codrescu. The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess