elbow

Etymology

From Middle English elbowe, from Old English elboga, elnboga (“elbow”), from Proto-Germanic *alinabugô (“elbow”), equivalent to ell + bow. Cognate with Scots elbuck (“elbow”), Saterland Frisian Älbooge (“elbow”), Dutch elleboog (“elbow”), Low German Ellebage (“elbow”), German Ellbogen, Ellenbogen (“elbow”), Danish albue (“elbow”), Icelandic olbogi, olnbogi (“elbow”).

noun

1. (anatomy) The joint between the upper arm and the forearm.
   Up to the elbowes naked were there Armes. 1627, Michael Drayton, “The Moone-Calfe”, in English Poetry 1579-1830: Spenser and the Tradition
   Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics." 1907, Robert W. Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set
2. (by extension) Any turn or bend like that of the elbow, in a wall, building, coastline, etc.; an angular or jointed part of any structure, such as the raised arm of a chair or sofa, or a short pipe fitting, turning at an angle or bent.
   the sides of windows, where the jamb makes an elbow with the window back
   The water runs down with a strong, sharp stickle, and then has a sudden elbow in it, where the small brook trickles in; and on that side the bank is steep, four or it may be five feet high, overhanging loamily; […] 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor
3. (US, dated, early 20th-century slang) A detective.
   "An elbow, huh?" putting all the contempt he could in his voice; and somehow any synonym for detective seems able to hold a lot of contempt. 1924, Dashiell Hammett, Zigzags of Treachery
4. (basketball) Part of a basketball court located at the intersection of the free-throw line and the free-throw lane.
5. A hit with the elbow.
   England ran Tunisia ragged in that spell but were punished for missing a host of chances when Ferjani Sassi equalised from the penalty spot against the run of play after Kyle Walker was penalised for an elbow on Fakhreddine Ben Youssef. 18 June 2018, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 2019-04-21
6. (knots) Two nearby crossings of a rope.

verb

1. To push with the elbow or elbows; to forge ahead using the elbows to assist.
   He elbowed his way through the crowd.
   On the DLR, or on the driverless Line 14 on the Paris Metro, I always try to sit at the front. (It's usually just a matter of elbowing aside some ten-year-old boys; I can then get on with pretending to drive the train.) 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, page 277
2. To strike with the elbow.
   Trumper elbowed me in the ribs and made a sign with his head. He seemed irritated now by our delay. 1953, George Lamming, In the Castle of My Skin, McGraw Hill Books Company, Inc., published 1954, page 166
   She looked round for Vera, but could not see her, and in the process of wriggling through the heaving crowd was elbowed in the eye. The blow acted like a spur, putting one thought in her head . . . to escape. 1975, Marjorie Darke, A Question of Courage, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Kestrel Books, page 108
3. To nudge, jostle or push.
   Suddenly and with all her heart Kate longed to be home, back at the homestead, to participate in the rambunctious toss and jostle as breakup elbowed its way into the Park. 1993, Dana Stabenow, A Fatal Thaw, page 105
4. (with "out" or "aside") To make someone quit or lose their job so that someone else can get it.