Word.ws English Dictionary

gave the elbow

gave the elbow is the simple past of give the elbow.

Meaning of give the elbow

Verb

give the elbow (third-person singular simple present gives the elbow, present participle giving the elbow, simple past gave the elbow, past participle given the elbow)

  1. (UK, slang, transitive) To fire (an employee); to end a relationship with someone; to reject someone.
    • They said I couldn't do the job so they gave me the elbow. So, now I'm looking for work again.
    Synonyms:
    elbow out, aside, out of the way, fire, sack

Questions about gave the elbow

What is gave the elbow the simple past of?
Gave the elbow is the simple past of give the elbow.

Words near gave the elbow in the dictionary

  1. gave the ax
  2. gave the axe
  3. gave the bird
  4. gave the devil his due
  5. gave the dirts
  6. gave the elbow
  7. gave the finger
  8. gave the floor
  9. gave the game away
  10. gave the lie
  11. gave the lie to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave the elbow (page history and authors); give the elbow (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “gave the elbow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gave_the_elbow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.