Elbow-Grease, subs. (colloquial).—Energetic and continuous manual
labour: e.g., ‘Elbow-Grease is the best furniture oil.’ Fr., huile de
bras or de poignet; du foulage.
1779–1839. Galt [quoted in Imperial Eng. Dict.]. He has scartit and
dintit my guid mahogany past a’ the power o’ beeswax and
elbow-grease to smooth.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1859. G. Eliot, Adam Bede, bk. I., ch. vi. Nowhere else could an
oak clock-case and an oak table have got to such a polish by the
hand: genuine elbow-polish, as Mrs. Poyser called it, for she
thanked God she never had any of your varnished rubbish in her
house.
1870. London Figaro, 31 Oct. Often have I been ... frequently
admonished to put some elbow-grease into my work.
1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. xi. There’s no
such polish in Devonshire, I should think, as poor Phœbe’s
elbow-grease.
Elbow-scraper, or Jigger, subs. (common).—A fiddler.
Elbow-shaker, subs. (old).—A gambler.—See Elbow.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Elbow-shaker (s.) a gamester,
one that practises dice-playing.
Elbow-shaking, subs. (common).—Gambling.—See Elbow.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lx. ‘It’s been doosedly dipped and
cut into, sir, by the confounded extravygance of your master, with
his helbow shakin’, and his bill discountin’.’
Electrified, ppl. adj. 1. (American).—Moderately drunk. For synonyms,
see Drinks and Screwed.