Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The joint or bend of the arm between the forearm and the upper arm.
- n. The bony outer projection of this joint.
- n. A joint, as of a bird or quadruped, corresponding to the human elbow.
- n. Something having a bend or angle similar to an elbow, especially:
- n. A length of pipe with a sharp bend in it.
- n. A sharp bend in a river or road.
- v. To push, jostle, or shove with the elbow: elbowed me in the ribs to get me to stop laughing.
- v. To open up (a means of passage, for example) by or as if by use of the elbow: elbowed her way through the crowd.
- v. To make one's way by pushing with the elbow.
- v. To turn at an angle; bend: The lane elbows to the left.
- idiom. at (one's) elbow Close at hand; nearby.
- idiom. out at the elbows Poorly dressed.
- idiom. out at the elbows Lacking money.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The bend of the arm; the angle made by bending the arm at the junction of the upper arm with the forearm.
- n. In anatomy, the elbow-joint and associate structures. See elbow-joint.
- n. Something curved or bent like the human elbow; specifically, a flexure or angle of a wall or road, especially if not acute; a sudden turn or bend in a river or the sea-coast; a jointed or curved piece of pipe for water, smoke, gas, etc., designed to connect two lines running at an angle to each other.
- n. In carpentry, etc., one of the upright sides which flank any paneled work. See crosset.
- n. The raised arm of a chair or end of a sofa, designed to support the arm or elbow.
- n. A shoulder-point in cattle. Grose. —At one's elbow, near at hand; convenient; within call.
- To push or shove with or as if with the elbow; hence, figuratively, to push or thrust by overbearing means; crowd: as, to elbow people aside in a crowd; to elbow a rival out of the way.
- To make or gain by pushing with the elbows: as, to elbow one's way through a crowd.
- To jut into an angle; project; bend or curve abruptly, as a wall or a stream.
- To jostle with or as if with the elbow; push one's way; hence, figuratively, to be rudely self-assertive or aggressive.
- n. In carriages, the rail that, forms the upper part of the frame of the quarter.
Wiktionary
- n. The joint between the upper arm and the forearm.
- n. A pipe fitting that turns a corner.
- n. US, obsolete A detective.
- v. To push with the elbow; to jostle or force.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The joint or bend of the arm; the outer curve in the middle of the arm when bent.
- n. Any turn or bend like that of the elbow, in a wall, building, and the like; a sudden turn in a line of coast or course of a river; also, an angular or jointed part of any structure, as the raised arm of a chair or sofa, or a short pipe fitting, turning at an angle or bent.
- n. (Arch.) A sharp angle in any surface of wainscoting or other woodwork; the upright sides which flank any paneled work, as the sides of windows, where the jamb makes an
elbow with the window back. - v. To push or hit with the elbow, as when one pushes by another.
- v. To jut into an angle; to project or to bend after the manner of an elbow.
- v. To push rudely along; to elbow one's way.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a sharp bend in a road or river
- v. shove one's elbow into another person's ribs
- v. push one's way with the elbows
- n. hinge joint between the forearm and upper arm and the corresponding joint in the forelimb of a quadruped
- n. a length of pipe with a sharp bend in it
- n. the joint of a mammal or bird that corresponds to the human elbow
- n. the part of a sleeve that covers the elbow joint
Etymologies
- Old English elnboga, from Germanic, corresponding to ell + bow. Cognate with Dutch elleboog, German Ellbogen. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English elbowe, from Old English elnboga. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The lower arm beneath the elbow is also symmetric.”
“Clasped along the inside of my elbow is a white elastic fishnet sleeve that holds the apparatus tight against my skin.”
“The back of my elbow is a little tender," Byrd said.”
“I have never met that celebrity; nor (if the rest of him at all comes up to what they called his elbow) have I the least desire of his acquaintance.”
St. Ives, Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England
“All of these have their own distinct requirements as far as to where my elbow is pointed.”
“The cast on her elbow is finally off, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasted no time Thursday swinging back at media reports that she is being sidelined by the White House in shaping U.S. foreign policy.”
“A fractured elbow is nasty, but it could have been worse.”
“When your elbow is held out parallel with the ground your clavecal bone pulls back out of the way and your pectoral muscle rises up for padding and to create a pocket for the butt to rest firmly in.”
“WASHINGTON (CNN) - The cast on her elbow is finally off, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasted no time Thursday swinging back at media reports that she is being sidelined by the White House in shaping U.S. foreign policy.”
“Poor Hillary, a broken elbow is no fun, We are all glad you are out of the cast, after all, Bill may need a good whack accross his head and the cast would serve that purpose.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘elbow’.
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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Describing People
eye, hair, mouth, nose, tooth, head, face, arm, hand, finger, lip, leg and 212 more...
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Words sung by: Belle and Sebastian
beguiling, herbaceous, peninsula, suffragette, damascan, hastening, berserk, overtime, leccy, bestow, swathe, arab strap and 193 more...
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Cool sounding words
Stuff that either rolls off the tongue really well or sounds interesting.
suppurate, inveterate, douche, Constantinople, zyzygy, polyglot, serendipitous, vivisection, solypsis, conflagration, instupituous, fecundity and 52 more...
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Recently Licked
Blame bilby. And dontcry.
cupcake, plate, fufluns, your finger befor..., postage stamp, lips, paul mcclosky, elbow, ice cream bowl, side of coffee cup, wooden spoon, teeth and 23 more...
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Words that hurt
A collection of words that inflict pain. If you liked this, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch_Money_(game)
jab, headbutt, headlock, choke, elbow, grab, kick, slap, roundhouse, spinning backfist, stomp, uppercut and 40 more...
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cindywrites's Words
chiaroscuro, mollycoddle, feckless, evocative, provocative, invocation, beckon, allay, becalm, console, lull, soothe and 479 more...
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Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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lemongrass's Words
ineffable, diode, abraxas, neologism, algorithm, schadenfreude, heresiology, vague, cathartic, quixotic, apocrypha?, quintessence and 103 more...
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Favorite Words of AWP13
We asked attendees who visited the Wordnik booth what their favorite words were, and these are what they told us. (AWP is an annual conference for writers and those in the writing world.)
cling, declivity, susurrus, caramel, cataract, please, fester, reverie, kerplunk!, defenestration, colonel, ocean and 174 more...
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Hedgepiglet
Words for things both tangible and nonanthropic
rorqual, vellus, wrasse, rainbow bee-eater, tinkershire, lemonquat, boomslang, tufted vetch, cubeb, nipplefruit, madapple, wad and 447 more...
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Favorite Five-Letter Words
Just what it sounds like. My favorites. Five letters.
ennui, barfy, samba, schwa, beefy, chunk, queef, spasm, skulk, bowel, elbow, fruit and 235 more...
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hauntedtapedeck's Words
hinterland, palimpsest, palisade, thaumaturgy, sangfroid, frisson, crick, patchwork, susurration, disconsolate, septum, elbow and 119 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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redunk's list
A list worth fighting for.
porpoise, pterodactyl, apatosaurus, jiminy, dodecahedron, messianic, elbow, animals
Tweets
Looking for tweets for elbow.

Prolagus You're kissing your elbow
You're kissing your reflection
And you can't understand why all the other boys are going for the
New, tall, elegant rich kids
You can bet it is a bitch, kid
But if they don't see the quality then it is apparent that
You're going to have to change
Or you're going to have to go with girls
You might be better off
At least they know where to put it.
(Seeing other people, by Belle and Sebastian) Oct 29, 2008