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

See Examples For:

elbow room

The crew of four — in the dim green glow of their spacecraft, with no more elbow room than a Sprinter van — entered a profound solitude few have ever experienced.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026

“They had some elbow room to cut…. That’s just not where they are now,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026

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