What it means
Old-school way of saying you’ll have to put in proper effort, usually with cleaning or fixing something that’s been left to fester. If it needs a bit of elbow grease, there’s no magic product or clever hack coming to save you, just sleeves up and some graft. Not literal grease, just sweat, scrubbing, and stubborn determination.
Usage examples
"This oven’s minging. Nan’s coming round in an hour. Grab the Fairy liquid and give it some elbow grease, mate, or we’re getting absolutely rinsed."
"A bit of elbow grease and that old pan will come up like new."
"The deck just needs some elbow grease, not an expensive cleaner."
Where it comes from
A cheeky old joke of a phrase: there is no actual grease, the lubricant is just plain hard physical effort applied through the elbow. Scrubbing, polishing and scouring all take elbow grease, that good honest sweat of putting your back, or your arm, into it. Tell someone a stain needs a bit of elbow grease and you are telling them to rub harder.
Other ways to say it
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