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

The angle of the open tent top will cut into the 48-in (122-cm) width, affecting the shoulder and elbow room of whoever's sleeping next to it, but IO compensates by giving the fabric entry-side wall a similar angle. —New Atlas, 20 Feb. 2026

The reason Georgia’s latest winter bash looked nothing like 2014’s Snowmageddon is because most people left elbow room for crews to treat the roads and did not weigh down first responders with dozens of crashes. —Doug Turnbull, AJC.com, 15 Feb. 2026

Cleo loves that her new office overlooks the addition’s main dance studio, which is generously spaced with 28-foot-high ceilings and 1,400-square-foot of elbow room. —John Wenzel, Denver Post, 20 Jan. 2026

But for decades, the city’s live music scene has struggled to find the kind of elbow room that helped launch its recording industry to global fame. —Joe Sills, Forbes.com, 17 Jan. 2026

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