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Synonyms

elbowroom

American  
[el-boh-room, -room] / ˈɛl boʊˌrum, -ˌrʊm /

noun

  1. ample room; space in which to move freely.

  2. scope; opportunity.

    a job with elbowroom.
elbowroom British  
/ -ˌrʊm, ˈɛlbəʊˌruːm /

noun

  1. 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

Etymology

Origin of elbowroom

First recorded in 1530–40; elbow + room

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

With all its new elbowroom, the company danced with new grace and exuberance.

From Time Magazine Archive

By war's end, father Jay was moving aside to give Harsen plenty of elbowroom, and Harsen's ideas were to expand.

From Time Magazine Archive

He felt cramped in his constitutional compartment of powers, looked for elbowroom.

From Time Magazine Archive

Cast a Giant Shadow, another exercise in movie biography, may be filed as a case of mistaken identity: any resemblance to persons living or dead is sacrificed to make elbowroom for Hero Kirk Douglas.

From Time Magazine Archive

Marshall's nationalism rescued American democracy from the vaguer horizons to which Jefferson's cosmopolitanism beckoned, and gave to it a secure abode with plenty of elbowroom.

From John Marshall and the Constitution; a chronicle of the Supreme court by Corwin, Edward Samuel

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.