See elbow grease in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"ref": "1864, Henry Wells Holly, chapter 3, in The Art of Saw-Filing, page 12:",
"text": "It is astonishing what miserable saws are sometimes used by mechanics, or those claiming to be such. The only way they can be coaxed or driven through the wood is by having an enormous set, a liberal use of oil, and another lubricator called elbow-grease.",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "1879, Anthony Trollope, chapter 5, in William Makepeace Thackeray:",
"text": "When we were young we used to be told, in our house at home, that \"elbow-grease\" was the one essential necessary to getting a tough piece of work well done. If a mahogany table was to be made to shine, it was elbow-grease that the operation needed.",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "2019, Sunny, “Violet's Adventure”, in Sunny Day:",
"text": "Some soapy water and a little elbow grease and we'll have the Glam Van clean in no time.",
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}
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"Effort or hard work, especially physical work involving repeated motion of the forearm, such as scrubbing."
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"(idiomatic) Effort or hard work, especially physical work involving repeated motion of the forearm, such as scrubbing."
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"word": "elbow juice"
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"word": "elbow-grease"
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"code": "da",
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"sense": "effort or hard work",
"word": "rügamine"
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"code": "fi",
"english": "involving repeated motion of forearm",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"word": "jynssäys"
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"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
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"word": "huile de coude"
},
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"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Gelenkschmiere"
},
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"english": "fig.",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
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"word": "Spucke"
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"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
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"word": "olio di gomito"
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"code": "kmr",
"lang": "Northern Kurdish",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"word": "rêncberî"
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"sense": "effort or hard work",
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"word": "elbow grease"
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"ref": "1864, Henry Wells Holly, chapter 3, in The Art of Saw-Filing, page 12:",
"text": "It is astonishing what miserable saws are sometimes used by mechanics, or those claiming to be such. The only way they can be coaxed or driven through the wood is by having an enormous set, a liberal use of oil, and another lubricator called elbow-grease.",
"type": "quote"
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"ref": "1879, Anthony Trollope, chapter 5, in William Makepeace Thackeray:",
"text": "When we were young we used to be told, in our house at home, that \"elbow-grease\" was the one essential necessary to getting a tough piece of work well done. If a mahogany table was to be made to shine, it was elbow-grease that the operation needed.",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "2019, Sunny, “Violet's Adventure”, in Sunny Day:",
"text": "Some soapy water and a little elbow grease and we'll have the Glam Van clean in no time.",
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"code": "da",
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"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
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"word": "knofedt"
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{
"code": "et",
"lang": "Estonian",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"word": "rügamine"
},
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"code": "fi",
"english": "involving repeated motion of forearm",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"word": "jynssäys"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
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"word": "huile de coude"
},
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"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
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"word": "Gelenkschmiere"
},
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"code": "de",
"english": "fig.",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "Spucke"
},
{
"code": "it",
"lang": "Italian",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "olio di gomito"
},
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"code": "kmr",
"lang": "Northern Kurdish",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"word": "rêncberî"
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"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "effort or hard work",
"tags": [
"masculine"
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"word": "wysiłek"
}
],
"word": "elbow grease"
}
Download raw JSONL data for elbow grease meaning in English (3.6kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (f889f65 and 8fbd9e8). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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