[f. prec. sb.]
1. trans. To thrust with the elbow; to jostle; also fig.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. iii. 44 (Globe ed.). A sovereign shame so elbows him.
1673. Dryden, Conq. Granada, I. i. Grown more strong, it … Elbows all the Kingdoms round about.
1691–8. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1711), III. 138. They have scarce room to pass in without elbowing … one another.
1710. Steele & Addison, Tatler, No. 253, ¶ 8. Must our Sides be elbowed, our Shins broken?
1876. Green, Stray Stud., 190. The trader elbowing the noble and the artisan the trader.
2. To thrust aside with the elbow; also, To elbow off, out of (anything). Chiefly fig.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 484, ¶ 5. It is ever want of breeding … to be … elbow’d out of his honest ambition.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1727), 74. He used to … elbow his fellow-servants to get near his mistress.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 485. They would elbow our own Aldermen off the Royal Exchange.
1884. Manch. Exam., 13 Nov., 5/2. The small farming class have been gradually elbowed out of their holdings.
† 3. absol. and intr. To push right and left with the elbows; also fig. So also, † To elbow it.
1636. Heywood, Challenge, V. i. Wks. 1874, V. 68. That Picke-devant that elbowes next the Queene.
1681. T. Manningham, Disc., 49–50 (T.). He that grows hot and turbid, that elbows in all his Philosophick Disputes.
1767. Babler, II. 195. To be elbowing it among people of fashion.
1885. L. Wingfield, Barbara Philpot, III. xii. 291. Beaux elbowed for a place.
4. a. quasi-refl. To force one’s way by elbowing; const. into, through. b. quasi-trans. To make (one’s way) by elbowing.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Berkeley, I. vii. 132. A carrier had left the market early to elbow his way into the bank.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., vi. 162. She … elbows herself in wherever she sees business going on.
5. intr. To make an ‘elbow’ in one’s path, go out of the direct way.
1804. Southey, in Robberds, Mem. W. Taylor, I. 503. I would elbow out of my way to Norwich.
1839–40. W. Irving, Wolfert’s R. (1855), 149. Elbowing along, zig-zag.
6. (See quot.)
1755. Johnson, Elbow To jut out in angles. Dict.
1775. in Ash.
1832. in Webster; and in mod. Dicts.
