elbowing

Pluralelbowings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A nudge or jostle given to someone with the elbow.

   A sharp elbowing in the ribs woke him from his daydream.

   The crowded subway platform was full of shoving and elbowing.

   Similarnudge, jab, jostling, pushing

   Note

   As a countable noun it can be one blow, but in the plural it becomes the steady jostle of a whole crowd. Writers used that crowd as a picture of worldly bustle. Thomas Carlyle, in Fraser's Magazine in 1832, pairs "crowdings and elbowings" at a fair booth. Thomas Burbidge's Mnemeion (1849) sets "the elbowings of the noisy throng" against the calm of holiness. The plural still suits that slightly literary register.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of elbow.

   She reached the front by elbowing past the other shoppers.

   Fans were elbowing toward the stage as the band appeared.

   Note

   One spelling does two jobs here. As a participle it marks action under way (they were elbowing forward), and as a gerund it names the activity (elbowing is not allowed). The gerund sits close to the countable noun, but only that noun takes a plural, elbowings. The form also carries the verb's informal sense of pushing someone out of a job to make room for another hire, as in elbowing a rival out.

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