elbow room

Idioms and Phrases

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]

Example Sentences

We must make more—much more—elbow room before the Turks get help from Asia or Constantinople.

From Project Gutenberg

Montaigne would say:219 I will have elbow-room: I will be courteous and affable according to my fancy, without fear or remorse.

From Project Gutenberg

Why, hundreds and hundreds of white rabbits could live in that house and never lack for elbow room.

From Project Gutenberg

Farce has called for elbow-room; it takes three acts now, instead of one, to spread itself in.

From Project Gutenberg

Some persons, as she reflected, are permitted an amount of elbow room altogether disproportionate to their deserts.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• breathing space
• latitude