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informal uk / ˈel.bəʊ ˌɡriːs / us / ˈel.boʊ ˌɡriːs / Add to word list. a lot of physical effort: The polish needs a certain amount of elbow grease to apply. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases. Effort and expending energy. assiduity. assiduously. assiduousness. be running on empty idiom. burn. effortfully. fight. hamster wheel.
“Elbow grease” refers to physical effort or manual labor. It’s often used when someone needs to put in some extra work to get something done, like cleaning a dirty room or fixing a broken appliance.
‘Elbow grease’ – one of the idioms that make English such a difficult language to master. Marvell was suggesting that, although religious meetings could be disrupted or broken up by the speakers’ opponents, printed material could be circulated unhindered.
Elbow grease is an idiom for manual labour and the process of working hard to accomplish an objective. It is a figure of speech for indicating that nothing other than one's own labour is required for a task, capable of being used in a humorous way.
The meaning of ELBOW GREASE is hard work; especially : vigorously applied physical labor or effort. How to use elbow grease in a sentence.
noun [ U ] informal us / ˈel.boʊ ˌɡriːs / uk / ˈel.bəʊ ˌɡriːs / Add to word list Add to word list. a lot of physical effort: The polish needs a certain amount of elbow grease to apply. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases. Effort and expending energy. assiduity. assiduously. assiduousness. be running on empty idiom. burn. effortfully. fight.
Meaning. Energetic labour, especially in the polishing of household items. Examples. That silver will never get a shine like that – put some elbow grease into it. Where did it originate? Britain, late 17th century. Where is it used? Britain, mostly by the older generation. Hear the idiom spoken. More idioms about. The human body. Effort.
People use elbow grease to refer to the strength and energy that you use when doing physical work like rubbing or polishing. [informal] It took a considerable amount of polish and elbow grease before the brass shone like new. Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. Word Frequency.
Elbow grease. This well-known expression for hard manual work dates from the early 17th century. The allusion is to the way the elbow is used in hard polishing, rubbing or cleaning.
Definition of elbow grease noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
