Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Adequate room to move or work in.
  • noun Ample scope: synonym: room.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Room to extend the elbows; hence, freedom from confinement; ample room for motion or action.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Room to extend the elbows on each side; ample room for motion or action; free scope.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Sufficient space to have freedom of movement
  • noun Sufficient latitude to modify something; latitude or margin

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun space for movement

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The town is famous for its summer music festival and Playwrights Conference, but now is the time to enjoy a little elbowroom before you get swept up in the holiday rush.

    Ojai Getaway Guide: The Best Of Ojai Anna Almendrala 2010

  • The town is famous for its summer music festival and Playwrights Conference, but now is the time to enjoy a little elbowroom before you get swept up in the holiday rush.

    Ojai Getaway Guide: The Best Of Ojai Anna Almendrala 2010

  • They ran a fleet of Cessna 152s -- tiny two-seater aircrafts with less elbowroom than a GEO Metro and in aeronautical terms, about the same capabilities.

    GROUND RUSH (Part 1) 2007

  • They ran a fleet of Cessna 152s -- tiny two-seater aircrafts with less elbowroom than a GEO Metro and in aeronautical terms, about the same capabilities.

    September 2007 2007

  • This stance gives him maximum elbowroom to interpret religion as primarily a delusion (as implied by the title), like the parasitic worm that commandeers ants by burrowing into their brains (the first example of the book).

    David Sloan Wilson: Atheism as a Stealth Religion V: Ineffective, Silly, and Worse 2008

  • He points visitors to the 37,291-acre Coosa Wildlife Management Area in east-central Alabama, the 39,139-acre Upper Delta WMA in the extreme southwestern part of the state, and the Choccolocco WMA in the northeast, where hunters willing to hike or bike can find plenty of elbowroom in 50,100 acres of prime Appalachia turkey woods.

    Hunt Turkeys, Pigs, Caribou, Snow Geese, and Hares in March 2005

  • I wish he would employ this winter in concluding a separate peace with the Elector of Saxony; which would give him more elbowroom to act against France and the Queen of Hungary, and put an end at once to the proceedings of the Diet, and the army of the empire; for then no estate of the empire would be invaded by a co-estate, and

    Letters to his son on The Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman 2005

  • Clemens pointed out the scenery he had bought to give himself elbowroom, and showed me the lot he was going to have me build on.

    Mark Twain: A Biography 2003

  • On both pairings, you hear analog and digital fumble cumbersomely for mutual elbowroom.

    Disquiet » Team-Up Marvel 2000

  • In order to tell a story, there must be some elbowroom, some breathing space, some hcense - otherwise you become as squeamish as a vegetarian.

    An Autobiography Peter, Ustinov 1977

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