Elbowy
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Tall and awkward. (of a person’s body)
"1892, Ambrose Bierce, “A Society Leader” in Black Beetles in Amber, San Francisco: Western Authors Publishing Company, p. 85, Doubtless it gratifies you to observe Elbowy girls and adipose mamas All looking adoration as you swerve This way and that;"
- 2 Awkward; especially, involving the awkward protrusion of the elbows. (of a person’s movement)
"[…] I was noticing how very elbowy his gestures were […]"
- 3 Having bends that resemble elbows. (of a tree or branches)
"1928, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, diary entry dated 3 May, 1928, in Bring Me a Unicorn: Diaries and Letters of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1922-1928, New York: Signet, 1973, p. 139, I […] looked out over my garden: the unkempt lush grass and the sweet-gum tree with elbowy boughs, crotchety and irregular."
- 4 Angular in an awkward way. (of a built structure)
"It is a place fit for a lady of her quality, and none of your elbowy dwellings like these crowded about us. One may easily tell the house, by its pretty blinds and its shades."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"1892, Ambrose Bierce, “A Society Leader” in Black Beetles in Amber, San Francisco: Western Authors Publishing Company, p. 85, Doubtless it gratifies you to observe Elbowy girls and adipose mamas All looking adoration as you swerve This way and that;"
Etymology
From elbow + -y.
More for "elbowy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.