Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) to steal.

1791		‘A London Ken-cracking Song’ in Confessions of Thomas Mount 20: And when his Peter we did burst, / His golden chain I hobbled first.
c.1800		‘The Dustman’s Delight’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 86: In the green yard he hobbled my horse and my cart.

2. (UK Und.) to arrest; to commit for trial.

c.1790		New Flash Song [broadside ballad] But the very day a rum lock did sight, / For we were hobbl’d.
1823		(ref. to late 18C) Byron note to Don Juan Canto XI 149: The following is a stanza of a song which was very popular, at least in my early days [...] ‘If you at the spellken can’t hustle / You’ll be hobbled in making a clout’.
1833		‘The Lively Kid’ in Rake’s Budget in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 88: Then up a court he bolted slap, / And I’m blow’d if they could hobble him.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 36: Hobbled, committed for trial.

3. (Aus./US) to restrain.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 14/2: Is New South Wales ready for a fight of races? She should not be. But if she does not want this she should have muzzled her Acting-Premier and hobbled the too nimble loyalists.
1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 25: He also notifies him to hobble his wife [...] She’s not to go draggin’ her lariat ’round loose no more.
1903		A. Adams Log of a Cowboy 284: Will you kindly hobble your lip.

4. (US campus) to have sexual intercourse.

1987		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.
1833		‘’ in Rummy Cove’s Delight in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III : .