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Is More Grease To Your Elbow A Correct English Sentence?

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Rory Copus Profile
Rory Copus answered
"More grease to your elbow" is indeed a correct english sentence, more specifically an idiom. Coincidentally, the correct, or more common form, of this particular idiom is "more power to your elbow", which also shortens to "Power to you!". This is a way of praising someone's success. However, it mainly stems from the sentence describing when something needs "more elbow grease", or someone tells another to "put more elbow grease into it", meaning that a little harder work or effort is required - that someone could put more effort into a task.

  • How is it used nowadays?
It is more commonly used to refer to a physical task at hand (judging by the physicality implied in the sentence), but has been used in other ways too. This is a nice contrast to the idea that there should be some tool or aid to make the job easier - as elbow grease doesn't exist, it's a nice way of postulating that a non-existant aid will make all the difference in the successful completion of a task.

  • Uses in real life
In workplaces, it has been used somewhat as an initiation, or practical joke by a master tradesperson on apprentices. The master would ask the apprentice to go fetch some elbow grease to facilitate the progression of a task, and tell them who to get it from. Each tradesman in on the game will forward the apprentice to another tradesman, under the auspices that they have the elbow grease instead. This will continue until either the apprentice catches on to the joke, gives up, or can't ask any more people.
  • Where did the saying arise from?
It is thought that the "elbow grease" idiom arose from the idea that, ironically, if a task was too hard to complete, all it needed was some fictional "elbow grease" to solve the problem. This then turned into a phrase that associated elbow grease with a solution, or the hard work that allows completion of a task.
Julius NE Profile
Julius NE answered
It is a statement (saying) rather than a sentence, which is often used to encourage a person following some form of good work; wishing that the person continues the good works in future.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
No.
It's more power to your elbow

one can grease a palm not an elbow
Martin Garret Profile
Martin Garret answered

Oh, my God! There are so many English idioms. It seems it's impossible to remember all of them. I am not a native speaker. Can you imagine how much effort I make to understand such phrases? I have recently found a list of idioms with explanations that impressed me a lot. Look at the article here.

Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
The term is correctly used as 'elbow grease'. Here's an example: "Hey, Jonny, put some more elbow grease into it!"
It means to put more effort into a task. It's more commonly used for physical tasks but it could be used in other ways.

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