elbow

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

Old English elnboga, from Germanic, corresponding to ell + bow. Cognate with Dutch elleboog, German Ellbogen.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈɛlbəʊ/
• (US) IPA: /ˈɛlboʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

elbow (plural elbows)

1. The joint between the upper arm and the forearm.
2. A pipe fitting that turns a corner.
3. (US, obsolete, early 20th-century slang) A detective.
   • 1924, Dashiell Hammett, "Zigzags of Treachery":

     "An elbow, huh?" putting all the contempt he could in his voice; and somehow any synonym for detective seems able to hold a lot of contempt.

Derived terms

Terms derived from elbow (noun)

elbow bone elbow grease elbow juice

elbow room give someone the elbow

Translations

joint between upper arm and forearm

Afrikaans: elmboog (af) Albanian: bërryl (sq) m. Arabic: كوع (ar) (kū`) m. Armenian: արմունկ (hy) (armunk) Old Armenian: արմուկն (armukn) Asturian: coldu (ast) m. Aymara: mujlli (ay) Azeri: dirsək (az) Basque: ukondo (eu) Breton: ilin m. Bulgarian: лакът (bg) (lakǎt) m. Catalan: colze m. Chamicuro: takolo Chinese: Mandarin: 肘 (cmn) (zhǒu) Cornish: elyn (kw) Czech: loket (cs) m. Danish: albue (da) c. Dutch: elleboog (nl) m. Esperanto: kubuto (eo) Estonian: küünarnukk Faroese: albogi (fo) Finnish: kyynärnivel (the joint as an organ), kyynärpää (tip of the elbow) French: coude (fr) m. Georgian: იდაყვი (ka) (idaqvi) German: Ellbogen (de) m. Greek: αγκώνας (el) m. (agkónas) Haitian Creole: koud Hebrew: מרפק (marpek) m. Hindi: कुहनी (hi) (kuhnī) f. Hungarian: könyök (hu) Icelandic: olnbogi (is) m. Ido: kudo Ilocano: siko Indonesian: siku (id) Interlingua: cubito Inuktitut: ᐁᑯᓯᒃ (iu) (ekusik) Irish: uillinn (ga) f. Italian: gomito (it) m. Japanese: 肘 (ひじ, hiji) Kazakh: шынтақ (kk) (šyntaq) Kinyarwanda: inkokora Korean: 팔꿈치 (palkkumchi) Kurdish: ئه‌ژنۆ (ku) Latgalian: alkiune f. Latin: cubitus (la), ulna (la)

Latvian: elkonis (lv) Luxembourgish: Ielebou (lb) Macedonian: лакт (mk) (lakt) Mandinka: nonkoŋo Manx: uillin (gv) Mongolian: тохой (mn) (tohoy) Nahuatl: moliktli (nah) Navajo: achʼoozhlaaʼ Northern Sotho: setšu Norwegian: albue (no) O'odham: sihsh Occitan: coide (oc) Old Church Slavonic: лакъть (lakŭtĭ) m. Old English: elnboga (ang) Pashto: څنګل (ps) (śangël) f. Persian: آرنج (fa) (âranj) Polish: łokieć (pl) m. Portuguese: cotovelo (pt) m. Romagnolo: gòmt m. Romani: कुनी (kunī) Romanian: cot (ro) n. Russian: локоть (ru) (lókot’) m. Samoan: tualima Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ла̏кат (sh) m. Roman: lȁkat (sh) m. Slovak: lakeť m. Somali: suxul (so) Sotho: setswe (st) Spanish: codo (es) m. Swahili: kisigino (sw) Swedish: armbåge (sv) c. Tagalog: sìko (tl) Tamil: முழங்கை (ta) Tatar: tersäk (tt) Telugu: మోచేయి (mOchaeyi) Turkish: dirsek (tr) Upper Sorbian: łochć Urdu: کہنی (ur) (kuhnī) f. Vietnamese: khuỷu tay (vi) Volapük: kubit (vo) West Frisian: earmtakke (fy) n. Wolof: cóñcó Yiddish: עלנבויגן (yi) (elnboygn) m. Yucatec: kuuk

pipe fitting

Bulgarian: коляно (bg) n. Finnish: mutka (fi) French: coude (fr) m. Italian: raccordo (it) m.

Norwegian: bend (no) n. Portuguese: cotovelo (pt) m. Russian: колено (ru) (koléno) n. Swahili: kisigino (sw)

Verb

elbow (third-person singular simple present elbows, present participle elbowing, simple past and past participle elbowed)

1. To push with the elbow; to jostle or force.

   He elbowed his way through the crowd.

Translations

to push with the elbow

Danish: albue (da) Finnish: käyttää kyynärpäitään (fi), tunkea (fi) French: jouer des coudes (fr) German: Swiss: ellbögeln (de) Italian: sgomitare (it)

Norwegian: albue (no) seg Polish: uderzyć z łokcia (pl) Swahili: kisigino (sw) Swedish: armbåga (sv)

See also

• Appendix:Parts of the knot

Anagrams

• below
• bowel