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Showing results for elbowroom. Search instead for elbowrooms.
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.

See Examples For:

On the other hand, the Bolshoi Swan Lake provided the soloists with more elbowroom to stitch figures of gaudy and often moving brilliance.

From Time Magazine Archive

Below, the 325 offers a lot of elbowroom.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

This means a house on the Thames, with a boat at the bottom of the garden and plenty of elbowroom for his wife and two young daughters.

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

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