Tom: What did you use to get your car so shiny? Mary: Just regular wax and some elbow grease.
•Joe put a lot of elbow grease into cleaning the kitchen.
Dictionary of American idioms. 2013.
Elbow grease — is an old term for working hard at manual labour or trades, as in put some elbow grease into that . It has also been used as a practical joke by master tradesperson on apprentices, e.g. Go fetch some elbow grease from him . Each tradesperson will … Wikipedia
elbow grease — {n.} Exertion; effort; energy. * / You ll have to use a little more elbow grease to get these windows clean, Mother said to Ed./ … Dictionary of American idioms
Elbow grease — Elbow El bow, n. [AS. elboga, elnboga (akin to D. elleboga, OHG. elinbogo, G. ellbogen, ellenbogen, Icel. ?lnbogi; prop.; arm bend); eln ell (orig., forearm) + boga a bending. See 1st {Ell}, and 4th {Bow}.] 1. The joint or bend of the arm; the… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
elbow grease — If something requires elbow grease, it involves a lot of hard physical work … The small dictionary of idiomes
elbow grease — elbow ,grease noun uncount INFORMAL hard physical work that you do to clean something … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
elbow grease — [n] physical effort effort, exertion, labor, muscle, oomph*, strain, strength, sweat, toil; concepts 87,100,351,360,362 … New thesaurus
elbow grease — ► NOUN informal ▪ hard physical work, especially vigorous polishing or cleaning … English terms dictionary
elbow grease — n. Informal vigorous physical effort … English World dictionary
elbow grease — noun use of physical or mental energy; hard work he got an A for effort they managed only with great exertion • Syn: ↑effort, ↑exertion, ↑travail, ↑sweat • Derivationally related forms: ↑ … Useful english dictionary
elbow grease — noun Effort or hard work, especially physical work involving repeated motion of the forearm, such as scrubbing. When we were young we used to be told, in our house at home, that elbow grease was the one essential necessary to getting a tough… … Wiktionary
