elbow

UK/ˈɛlbəʊ̯/US/ˈɛlboʊ̯/

nounA24 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,279 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: elbows, elbowed, elbowing

Your elbow is the joint in the middle of your arm, the hard point you lean on at a table. It bends when you lift a cup, and it stings for a full minute when you catch it on a door frame.

Elbow is a verb too: you elbow someone in the ribs to make them stop talking, and you elbow your way through a crowd on a platform. Plumbers call a right-angled bend in a pipe an elbow, because it does the same job as yours. Elbow room is space enough to move, or freedom to work your own way; elbow grease is hard scrubbing. In British English, to give someone the elbow is to get rid of them. And to rub elbows with people is to mix with them.

Definitions of elbow

1nounelbowThe joint in the middle of the arm, where the arm bends.A2~77%
“He rested his elbow on the counter and waited.”
2verbpushTo push somebody with your elbow, or to push your way through using your elbows.B1~7%
“She elbowed past the queue and out through the doors.”
3nounsharpA sharp bend in a pipe or tube.B2~14%
“The leak turned out to be at the elbow under the sink.”
4nounsleeveThe part of a sleeve that covers the elbow.B1~2%
“His jumper had worn through at both elbows.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 14 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

elbow is a joint in the body.

Phrases it lives in

elbow room — enough space to move, or enough freedom to act
elbow grease — hard physical effort, especially scrubbing

Where it comes from

Old English called it elnboga, later elboga, from Proto-Germanic *alinabugô — a compound of the words that became English ell and bow, the bow being the bend. Almost every Germanic language kept the same picture: Dutch elleboog, German Ellbogen, Icelandic olnbogi.

Proto-Indo-European
*Heh₃l-
Proto-Germanic
*alinabugô — elbow
Old English
elboga
Middle English
elbowe — elbow
English, today
elbow

Built from

elnboga · Old English — elbow

From Middle English elbowe (“elbow”), from Old English elboga, elnboga (“elbow”), from Proto-Germanic alinabugô (“elbow”), equivalent to ell + bow. Cognate with Scots elbuck (“elbow”), stq Älbooge (“elbow”), Dutch elleboog (“elbow”), Low German Ellebage (“elbow”), German Ellbogen, Ellenbogen (“elbow”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål albue (“elbow”), Norwegian Nynorsk olboge (“elbow”), Faroese albogi, Icelandic olbogi, olnbogi (“elbow”), Swedish armbåge (“elbow”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Body & Health, A Man Called Ove, Hitting & Pushing

First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

elbow in the wild

Elbow (stylized in lowercase as elbow) are an English rock band formed in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 1990.
Elbow (band)
The triceps muscle contracts when the elbow is straightened and expands when the elbow is bent.
Triceps
The olecranon serves as a lever for the extensor muscles that straighten the elbow joint.
Olecranon
An evening glove or opera glove is a type of glove that reaches beyond the elbow.
Evening glove
However, Southeast Asian boxing (Pradal Serey, Muay Thai, Muay Lao, Lethwei) and most mixed martial arts (MMA) organizations do allow elbowing, or allow elbowing in a specific manner.
Elbow (strike)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Definitions of elbow

1nounelbowThe joint in the middle of the arm, where the arm bends.A2~77%

“He rested his elbow on the counter and waited.”

2verbpushTo push somebody with your elbow, or to push your way through using your elbows.B1~7%

“She elbowed past the queue and out through the doors.”

3nounsharpA sharp bend in a pipe or tube.B2~14%

“The leak turned out to be at the elbow under the sink.”

4nounsleeveThe part of a sleeve that covers the elbow.B1~2%

“His jumper had worn through at both elbows.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 14 of them on a sense (1 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

elbow is a joint in the body.