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

• 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

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

Other cities have better infrastructure, fewer rats, cleaner streets, plentiful public toilets, more elbow room. —Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 5 May 2025

If the spot will be used for morning meditation or movement, outfit the room with the proper furnishings and make sure there is enough elbow room for its intended purpose. —Patricia Shannon, Better Homes & Gardens, 26 Mar. 2025

Cosmic Guitar Even with a seemingly infinite amount of elbow room, sometimes galaxies stick together thanks to gravity. —Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 23 Apr. 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