Hobson's choice
短语无选择余地的选择
发音
词形变化
别名
释义与例句
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1.
A situation where a person is presented with the illusion of a free choice, but in reality there is only one option available: accepting the offer or having nothing at all.
霍伯森的选择
习语 -
2.
A choice between several undesirable options; Sophie's choice.
习语 引申义 -
3.
The voice.
俚语
词汇关系
上位词 3
词源
From Hobson + -’s + choice, widely claimed to have been named after Thomas Hobson (c. 1544–1631) of Cambridge, England, who rented horses and had an extensive stable, but is said to have required each customer to take the horse in the stall closest to the door, to prevent the best horses from always being chosen and becoming overused. The Oxford English Dictionary also suggests an alternative etymology based on a 1607 work, The Pleasant Conceites of Old Hobson, which refers to one William Hobson (died 1581), a haberdasher from London, who is said to have been unable to recognize his own horse, and so had the habit of waiting at stables until other people had claimed their horses as the one remaining had to be his. This story is most likely fictional as it is identical to one entitled “Of the Two Yong Men that Rode to Walsingham” in Mery Tales and Quick Answeres (1530).
来源：wiktionary