elbowroom
ample room; space in which to move freely.
scope; opportunity: a job with elbowroom.
Origin of elbowroom
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use elbowroom in a sentence
We must make more—much more—elbow room before the Turks get help from Asia or Constantinople.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I | Ian HamiltonMontaigne would say:219 I will have elbow-room: I will be courteous and affable according to my fancy, without fear or remorse.
The 'Characters' of Jean de La Bruyre | Jean de La BruyreWhy, hundreds and hundreds of white rabbits could live in that house and never lack for elbow room.
Bumper, The White Rabbit | George Ethelbert WalshFarce has called for elbow-room; it takes three acts now, instead of one, to spread itself in.
The English Stage | Augustin FilonSome persons, as she reflected, are permitted an amount of elbow room altogether disproportionate to their deserts.
The History of Sir Richard Calmady | Lucas Malet
British Dictionary definitions for elbowroom
/ (ˈɛlbəʊˌruːm, -ˌrʊm) /
sufficient scope to move or function
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with elbowroom
Enough space to move about, as in Two hundred on the stage? There won't be any elbow room. This term alludes to having enough room to extend one's elbows. [Late 1500s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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