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Examples
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Elizabeth Kolbert, in The New Yorker, writes with touching clarity about real parenting, without the noise from our crazy, elbows-out, full-body contact winners and losers style of modern middle and upper-middle class American style:
Story pick: Roaring about the Tiger Mother Brigid Schulte 2011
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Oregon Sen. Bob Packwood beat opponent Les AuCoin with a strong pro-business stand in the spotted-owl controversy and high-spending, elbows-out attacks on such issues as Congressman AuCoin's 83 overdrafts at the House bank; in a debate, Congressman AuCoin asked, "Bob, do you have no shame about peddling the garbage you put on TV?"
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Anybody who did not embrace the elbows-out culture "didn't get it."
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Because of Rep. Emanuel's elbows-out style, much of the instant analysis of his selection has suggested that the Obama White House will have a partisan tone.
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The debonair, British-born Blankley comes from the elbows-out school of politics popularized by Gingrich when the Republicans took over the House of Representatives just two years into the Clinton presidency.
Settling Scores 2008
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Nothing prepared him for the elbows-out world of big-time Southern Baptist politics.
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“Be careful,” she called, as Maisy ignored the other children and went trundling over to the wooden slide with her toes-in, elbows-out walk that made her look like an indignant penguin.
The Guy Not Taken Jennifer Weiner 2006
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The race has already produced flashes of elbows-out campaign tactics.
NYT > Home Page By MICHAEL BARBARO 2011
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You might see graceful tap-dance-style spins or elbows-out arm pumping borrowed from African dance, but in general only feet touch the floor-no headstands, no flares, no hand hops.
Chicago Reader 2010
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You might see graceful tap-dance-style spins or elbows-out arm pumping borrowed from African dance, but in general only feet touch the floor-no headstands, no flares, no hand hops.
Chicago Reader 2010
vendingmachine commented on the word elbows-out
"According to a 2004 article by the Baltimore Sun, "some of his fellow students opposed his selection describing him as 'an elbows-out competitor.'"
I'm still not sure what elbows-out means.
September 22, 2022
tankhughes commented on the word elbows-out
I think it's an American football reference, or a sports reference at least, about running with your elbows out to keep other people away from you, or to suddenly jut your elbows out to knock nearby racers out of your way. Someone who's not afraid to show their mercilessly competitive side.
September 22, 2022
vendingmachine commented on the word elbows-out
Thank you, tankhughes. And here I thought that perhaps it had something to do with poor table manners.
September 23, 2022
alexz commented on the word elbows-out
Google book search has
A book called Elbows Out
By Dietrich von Bothmer · 1968
Dictonary of Phrase and Fable 1898
"To elbow ont ; to be elbowed out . To supersede ; to be ousted by a rival . "
And then there is
'out at the elbows' referring to a person's jacket elbows being worn out.
From the book 'Gone to the bottom' page 121
https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Gone_to_the_Bottom
September 24, 2022