elbow room

noun

1

a

: room for moving the elbows freely

b

: adequate space for work or operation

a lab with plenty of elbow room

2

: free scope

elbow room to try new ideas

Synonyms of elbow room

• room
• space

Examples of elbow room in a Sentence

It's a small kitchen with very little elbow room.

help me move the furniture so that we'll have enough elbow room to do some aerobics

Recent Examples on the Web

With nearly 11,500 square feet of space over a few floors, Muji shoppers should have plenty of elbow room to check out the apparel, accessories, home wares, gifts and other items that the Japanese lifestyle brand is serving up. —Rosemary Feitelberg, Footwear News, 25 Nov. 2025

Night skiing is on the rise, as resorts throughout North America and Europe have extended their hours, promising novelty, convenience, and more elbow room on the mountain. —Denny Lee, Travel + Leisure, 16 Nov. 2025

Fishers is looking for a little more elbow room around the art center and the Nickel Plate Amphitheater. —John Tuohy, IndyStar, 13 Aug. 2025

But even so, there is a lot of elbow room: the nearest star to the sun is more than four light-years distant, separated from us by tens of trillions of kilometers. —Phil Plait, Scientific American, 26 June 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1540, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for elbow room

• anteroom
• assume
• backroom
• ballroom
• barroom
• bathroom
• bedroom
• boardroom
• bridegroom
• classroom
• cloakroom
• consume

Kids Definition

elbowroom

noun

el·​bow·​room

ˈel-ˌbō-ˌrüm, 

-ˌru̇m

1

: room for moving the elbows freely

2

: enough space for work or operation