Forms: 1 elnboʓa, eleboʓa, elboʓa, 2–6 elbowe, 3 elbou, 7 elboe, 7– elbow; also (Sc.) 6 elbok, 8 elbuck. [A Com. Teut. compound: OE. ęlnboʓa = Du. elleboog, OHG. elinbogo (MHG. ellenboge, mod.G. ellen-, ellbogen), ON. ǫlnboge (Icel. ölnbogi, ölbogi, Da. albue):—OTeut. *alino-bogon-, f. *alinâ arm (see ELL) + *bogon- bending = BOW sb.1]
1. The outer part of the joint between the fore and the upper arm.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 158. Cubitum, fædm betwux elboʓa and handwyrste.
c. 1150. Voc. ibid. 536. Ulna, elbowe.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8086. Þair armes hari wit hirpild hid War sette til elbous in þair side.
a. 1300. Fragm., 322, in Popular Treat. on Sc., 139. Thelbowes to the schare.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 184. A much berd … Watz euesed al vmbe-torne, abof his elbowes.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 137. Elbowe, cubitus.
1588. A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., 138. Wae be vnto thame … quha sewis soft kods to putt vnder euerie Elbok.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 101. Turnes … from one Elbow to another.
1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, I. i. (1684), 11. He was yesterday at the Play, with a pair of Gloves Up to his Elbows.
1714. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., lxxxv. 140. In … a great crowd … people … knock others with their elbows.
1786. Burns, The Ordination, vii. To see our elbucks wheep And a’ like lamb-tails flyin.
1797. Coleridge, Christabel, I. She … on her elbow did recline To look at the lady Geraldine.
1879. Stainer, Music of Bible, 122. Irish bagpipes are inflated by the elbow, Scotch by the mouth.
† b. The point resembling an elbow in the shoulder or hock of quadrupeds. Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 408. Of the Curbe. This is a long swelling beneath the Elbow of the hough.
1789. W. Marshall, Gloucester (E. D. S.), Elbows, the shoulder-points of cattle.
2. transf. Anything resembling an elbow.
a. A sharp bend in the course of a river, road, etc.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Ahocinarse el rio … to run with turnings or elbows.
1618. Bp. Hall, Serm., V. 117. The current … speeds forward from one elbow of earth unto another.
1762–71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 297. The elbows of serpentine rivers.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 99. The road … presents from an elbow the finest view of a town I have ever seen.
1861. Miss Beaufort, Egypt. Sepul., II. xxiii. 311. The ravine … turns with a sudden elbow round the end of mount Silpius.
b. A forward or outward projection; a corner.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 472. 122. Fruit-Trees, or Vines, set vpon a Wall, against the Sunne, betweene Elbowes and Buttresses of Stone, ripen more, than vpon a Plaine Wall.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., p. cvii. Some Elbows or Wharfs … being taken away.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, III. 206. Ancona … The name of this city is said to be owing to its situation, because of the elbow (ἀγκώη) … which the shore makes in that place.
1829. Southey, Sir T. More (1831), I. 120. You cross a wall and the elbow of a large tree that covers it.
1830. W. Phillips, Mt. Sinai, IV. 504. Departing day Behind the mountain’s elbow disappear’d.
1876. Blackmore, Cripps, II. xiv. 217. The elbow of a hedge jutted forth upon the common.
c. Mechanics. An angle in a tube, etc.; a short piece of pipe bent at an angle to join two long straight pieces.
1777. Phil. Trans., LXVII. 643. As the elbow made a right angle, the tube itself was of course horizontal.
1874. Knight, Amer. Dict. Mech., Elbow, 1. The junction of two parts having a bent joint. A knee or toggle joint. 2. A bend, as of a stove-pipe.
1880. Mac Cormac, Antisept. Surg., 147. The tube should have no elbows.
d. Arch. (see quot.)
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 584. Elbows of a Window, the two flanks of panelled work, one under each shutter.
1875. Parker, Gloss. Archit., Elbows, the projections on the side of stalls.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., Elbow. The upright side which flanks any panelled work, as in windows below the shutters, &c.
e. Naut. (see quot.)
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Cable tourné … a foul hawse; a cross or elbow in hawse.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v., Elbow in the hawse.… When a ship, being moored in a tideway, swings twice the wrong way, thereby causing the cables to take half a round turn on each other.
f. dial. (see quot., and cf. elbow-health in 5).
1877. E. Peacock, N.-W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), Elbow, the conical hollow in the bottom of a wine-bottle.
† 3. transf. An arm of a chair, made to support the elbow. Obs. exc. in comb. ELBOW-CHAIR.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Accoudoir…. Vne chaire à accoudoirs. A chaire with elbowes.
1679. Marriage of Charles II., 3. A great Chair with elbows.
1750. Carte, Hist. Eng., II. 14. Elbows (as the sides of chairs are now called).
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 60. But elbows still were wanting; these, some say, An alderman of Cripplegate contriv’d.
4. Phrases: a. At the, one’s elbow(s: close by, very near; in close attendance; also fig.; so From the, one’s elbow: away from one’s side. b. Up to the elbows: lit.; also fig. engrossed in work, excessively busy. c. To be out at elbow(s: to have a coat worn out at the elbows, to be ragged, poor, in bad condition; hence, in same sense, Out-at-elbowed adj. (nonce-wd.). So, in contrary sense, In at elbows (rare). d. † To scratch, rub the elbow: to show oneself pleased, to chuckle. e. To shake the elbow: to play at dice (arch.). † Knight of the elbow: a gambler. f. † To suck at (one’s) elbow: ? to play the parasite, sponge upon (one).
a. 1548. Ld. Somerset, Epist. Scots, 243. Ye haue youre enemies … at your elbowe.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, vi. (1887), 47. In the elder yeares, reason at the elbow must serue the student. Ibid., xxxvii. 143. You are not able to spare him from your elbow.
1698. Vanbrugh, Æsop, II. i. (1730), 230. Talk of the Devil and he ’s at your elbow.
1840–1. Dickens, Old C. Shop, i. I found at my elbow a pretty little girl.
b. 1601. Shaks., Jul. C., III. i. 107. Let vs bathe our hands in Cæsars blood Vp to the Elbowes.
1883. A. Robson, Dead Letter, II. v. Up to our Elbows making Damson Jam.
c. 1623. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. i. 61. He cannot [speak] Sir; he’s out at Elbow.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 55. Sir Ulic Mackilligut … is said to be much out at elbows.
1841. Thackeray, Sec. Fun Nap., i. Seedy out-at-elbowed coats.
a. 1847. Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, I. vi. 244. He was himself just now so terribly out at elbows, that he could not command a hundred pounds.
1865. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., III. VIII. iv. 17. Several things known to be out-at-elbows in that Country.
1872. Geo. Eliot, Middlemarch, IV. xxxviii. 287 (D.). Pay that hardly keeps him in at elbows.
1885. Times, 28 May, 9/1. There is an out-at-elbows look about some quarters of Dublin.
d. 1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 109. One rub’d his elboe thus, and fleer’d, and swore, A better speech was neuer spoke before.
1598. E. Gilpin, Skial. (1878), 25. He’le … scratch the elbow too To see two butchers curres fight.
e. 1705. Hearne, Collect., 26 Nov. (1885–6), I. 100. Money which … he squander’d away in shaking his Elbow.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Wks. (1760), II. 46 (D.). Knights of the elbow.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 127. Many good and great men have shook the elbow.
f. 1548. Hall, Chron. (1809), 312. He had many … that daily sucked at his Elbowe.
5. attrib. and Comb., as elbow-cushion, -guard, -point; also elbow-bombard [transl. It. bombardo cubito], a kind of cannon in which the breech was at right angles with the bore; elbow-cloak, ? a cloak reaching down to the elbows only; elbow-deep a. (see quot.; cf. 2 f. and elbow-health); elbow-health, fig., a bumper; elbow-piece, (a.) in plate armor, a covering for the juncture of the plates meeting at the elbow; (b.) a piece of tubing forming an elbow; elbow-polish ELBOW-GREASE; elbow-shaker (see quot.); elbow-shaking vbl. sb. and ppl. a., playing at dice; elbow-wind, a wind blowing sideways. Also ELBOW-CHAIR, -GREASE, -JOINT, -ROOM.
1881. Greener, Gun, 20. It was called the *elbow bombard.
c. 1612. Rowlands, Paire of Spy-Knaves (Hunter. Cl.), 16. An *elbow Cloake, because wide Hose and Garters May be apparent in the lower quarters.
1653. Milton, Hirelings (1659), 84. A pulpited divine;… a lollard indeed over his *elbow-cushion.
1642. T. Taylor, God’s Judgem., II. vii. 102. No man was able to contend with him in his … *Elbow-deep Healths.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., 190. *Elbow-guards, or condières … were rarely adopted till after the year 1300.
1622. Middleton, &c. Old Law, V. i. The nimble fencer … that gave me Those *elbow-healths.
1772. Phil. Trans., LXVII. 643. This tube was connected to the receiver of the air-pump by means of an *elbow-piece of brass.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, I. 132 (D.). Genuine *‘elbow polish,’ as Mrs. Poyser called it.
1785. Cowper, Task, IV. 44. Bored with *elbow-points through both his sides.
1725. New Cant. Dict., *Elbow-shaker,… a Gamester or Sharper.
1700. Prol. to Farquhar’s Const. Couple (D.). Your *Elbow-shaking Fool, that lives by’s Wits.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis (1875), 594. ‘It’s been cut into by your master, with his helbow-shakin’ and his bill discountin’.’
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 113. A face or back-wind signifies little, nor the *elbow-wind neither to peas and vetches.
