Elbow

(Anglo-Saxon, el-boga; el=an ell, boga=a bow.)

A knight of the elbow. A gambler.

At one’s elbow. Close at hand.

To elbow one’s way in. To push one’s way through a crowd; to get a place by hook or crook.

To elbow out, to be elbowed out. To supersede; to be ousted by a rival.

Up to one’s elbow [in work]. Very busy, or full of work. Work piled up to one’s elbows.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.