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Hobson's choice

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia 0.06 sec.
Hobson's choice
the choice between taking what is offered and getting nothing at all. (From the name of a stable owner in the seventeenth century who always hired out the horse nearest the door.) We didn't really want that particular hotel, but it was a case of Hobson's choice. We booked very late and there was nothing else left. If you want a yellow car, it's Hobson's choice. The garage has only one.
See also: choice

Hobson's choice
a situation in which it seems that you can choose between different things or actions, but there is really only one thing that you can take or do
Usage notes: Thomas Hobson was a man who kept horses and did not give people a choice about which horse they could have.
It's Hobson's choice, because if I don't agree to do what they want, I'll lose my job.
See also: choice


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More and more Americans are rightly frustrated that the debate on Iraq among policy-makers and politicians has ossified into a Hobson's choice between "staying the course" and "cutting and running.
If it turns out the building rents, beware because one day (maybe years down the road) when you least expect it, the building may be faced with the Hobson's choice of renewing the lease at some exorbitant rate or buying the land outright, which could result in skyrocketing maintenance and--in the case of purchase--an unsustainable debt burden.
The attorney general appears content with saddling Karouni with the Hobson's choice of either returning to Lebanon and facing persecution for future homosexual acts or living a life of celibacy," wrote Judge Harry Pregerson in the Karouni decision.
 
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