They did not speak. They walked side by side, their shoulders touching occasionally, their hobnailed shoes clattering on the pavements.
Irwin Shaw. The Young Lions, p.85 (1948)
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There was a noise of hobnails on the bricks in the bar,
H. G. Wells. The Invisible Man (1897)
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I organized a drill team of six-footers whose duty it was to march through the streets striking up sparks with their hob-nailed shoes.
Ralph Ellison. The Invisible Man (1952)
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His legs, in blue stockings, looked out from beneath yellow trousers, drawn tight by braces, He wore stout, ill-cleaned, hob-nailed boots.
Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary
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Our lawn remained untrodden by hob-nailed boots.
P. G. Wodehouse. Love Among the Chickens A Story of the Haps and Mishaps on an English Chicken Farm (1909)
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He now wears shining boots with hardly a hob in 'em, two or three times a-week, and a tall hat a-Sundays, and 'a hardly knows the name of smockfrock. When I see people strut enough to be cut up into bantam cocks, I stand dormant with wonder, and says no more!