Dictionary

sharp-elbowed en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (not-comparable, usually) Possessing narrow, bony, rather pointed elbows.
   • […] dire faces, figures dire, Sharp-knee'd, sharp-elbowed, and lean-ankled too 1802, William Wordsworth, The Pedlar:
   • —Go to the Bible!—said a sharp voice from a sharp-faced, sharp-eyed, sharp-elbowed, strenuous-looking woman in a black dress. 1882, Oliver Wendell Holmes, chapter 1, in The Professor at the Breakfast Table:
2. (figuratively, informal, not-comparable, usually) Pushy; having a boldly assertive manner intended to establish an advantage.
   • In this imagined reality, sharp-elbowed parents are handed ‘golden tickets’ for endless support. Meanwhile, we battle for the bare minimum[.] 2024 January 7, John Harris, “As councils crumble, a new scapegoat has been found: the parents of disabled and vulnerable children”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
   • Fifteen documentaries are in sharp-elbowed competition to be among the five Oscar nominees. 2014 December 4, Brooks Barnes, Michael Cieply, “Documentaries Jostle Against Oscar Obscurity”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 Jun 2015:
   • With his stocky build, spread-collar shirts and locker-room charm, Walter Yetnikoff fit right in among the sharp-elbowed power brokers in the music business. 1990 September 17, Richard Behar, “A Music King's Shattering Fall”, in Time, retrieved 28 Jun 2015:
   • sharp-elbowed parents
   • No sooner had President Washington been sworn in, wearing mousy, egalitarian brown broadcloth, than the sharp-elbowed jockeying for social status began. 1977 October 24, Michael and Ariane Batterberry, “Party Politics”, in New York, page 81:

Forms

Relateds

sharp elbows