elbow mentality
- noun
- /ˈɛlboʊ mɛnˈtælɪti/
- Jargon
:
mentalidad competitiva
- The company's elbow mentality discouraged new employees from sharing ideas.
Examples
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Her elbow mentality made it hard for the team to work together.
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Her elbow mentality often led her to prioritize her own success over teamwork.
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Her elbow mentality sometimes alienated her from her colleagues.
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Many believe that an elbow mentality is necessary to succeed in highly competitive industries.
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Don't adopt an elbow mentality!
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In a workplace dominated by elbow mentality, collaboration quickly becomes a stranger.
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An elbow mentality can hinder the kind of cooperation that drives innovation in a team.
Synonyms
7
6.1
Thinking and talking about yourself too much and feeling better than others
4
7.9
Trying to show you are better than someone by bragging
2
7.2
A habit of caring mainly about your own needs and not others
1
8.2
A habit of putting your own needs before other people's
Putting your own needs before the needs of other people
Antonyms
How Selfish
23
7.8
50
3.0
- Jargon
49
4.0
43
4.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
elbow + mentality
The phrase pairs the body-part 'elbow' with 'mentality' so the meaning relies on a metaphorical extension (as in 'to elbow someone aside' = push past others) rather than a literal composition. A B1 learner who knows both words could probably guess the general idea of a pushy, self‑serving attitude, but the figurative leap is not fully transparent, making it only partially predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The noun elbow mentality comes from the clear image of someone using their elbow to push past people in a crowd to get ahead. So it describes a 'selfish' attitude where a person puts their own needs before other people.