sharp-elbowed

English

Pronunciation

  • Audio (General Australian):(file)

Adjective

sharp-elbowed (not generally comparable, comparative more sharp-elbowed, superlative most sharp-elbowed)

  1. Possessing narrow, bony, rather pointed elbows.
    • 1802, William Wordsworth, The Pedlar:
      […] dire faces, figures dire,
      Sharp-knee'd, sharp-elbowed, and lean-ankled too
    • 1882, Oliver Wendell Holmes, chapter 1, in The Professor at the Breakfast Table:
      —Go to the Bible!—said a sharp voice from a sharp-faced, sharp-eyed, sharp-elbowed, strenuous-looking woman in a black dress.
  2. (figurative, informal) Pushy; having a boldly assertive manner intended to establish an advantage.
    sharp-elbowed parents
    • 1977 October 24, Michael and Ariane Batterberry, “Party Politics”, in New York, page 81:
      No sooner had President Washington been sworn in, wearing mousy, egalitarian brown broadcloth, than the sharp-elbowed jockeying for social status began.
    • 1990 September 17, Richard Behar, “A Music King's Shattering Fall”, in Time, retrieved 28 June 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.
    • 2014 December 4, Brooks Barnes, Michael Cieply, “Documentaries Jostle Against Oscar Obscurity”, in New York Times, retrieved 28 June 2015:
      Fifteen documentaries are in sharp-elbowed competition to be among the five Oscar nominees.
    • 2024 January 7, John Harris, “As councils crumble, a new scapegoat has been found: the parents of disabled and vulnerable children”, in The Guardian‎[1], →ISSN:
      In this imagined reality, sharp-elbowed parents are handed ‘golden tickets’ for endless support. Meanwhile, we battle for the bare minimum[.]
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