elbow room

Idioms  

1. 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]

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Example Sentences

“Viewed positively, what the American revolution did was to give the common man a voice, a veto, elbow room and a refuge from the rampaging presumptions of his ‘betters.’

From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026

The shift will likely provide some extra elbow room in the carpool lanes and possibly inspire more drivers to carpool once again, experts say.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 1, 2025

Yeah, you don’t have a lot of elbow room.

From Slate • Dec. 10, 2023

But conventional accelerators require plenty of elbow room -- kilometers -- making them expensive and limiting their presence to a handful of national labs and universities.

From Science Daily • Nov. 27, 2023

Despite the lack of elbow room, they were busy tossing torn bits of paper over the side, creating a steady rain of confetti onto the "greatest and most significant" parade in New York City's history.

From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple

Related Words

• breathing space
• latitude