Word.ws English Dictionary

out-at-elbow

out-at-elbow is the alternative form of out at elbow.

Meaning of out at elbow

Adjective

out at elbow (not comparable)

  1. Of a coat, jumper, etc., worn through at the elbows; of clothes, shabby, in poor condition.
    • [T]he children [...] went about in shabby, out-at-elbow clothes, and much worn boots.1894, Ethel Turner, Seven Little Australians, published 1912, page 18
  2. In needy circumstances.
    • There was an old soldier who had been long in the wars—so long, that he was quite out-at-elbows, and did not know where to go to find a living.1890, Joseph Jacobs, “Jack Hannaford”, in English Fairy Tales, page 40

Questions about out-at-elbow

What is out-at-elbow the alternative form of?
Out-at-elbow is the alternative form of out at elbow.

Words near out-at-elbow in the dictionary

  1. out-and-outers
  2. out-argue
  3. out-argued
  4. out-argues
  5. out-arguing
  6. out-at-elbow
  7. out-ball
  8. out-balls
  9. out-basket
  10. out-baskets
  11. out-bawl

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: out-at-elbow (page history and authors); out at 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.

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