ProverbWisdom
English origin1639
English origin1639Give it plenty of elbow grease.
Meaning: Sustained physical effort and hard work can overcome obstacles that seem intractable or resistant to easy solutions.
Origin: A joke nearly four centuries old: the "grease" that makes things shine is really the effort of hard rubbing with the arm. John Clarke's 1639 schoolbook of proverbs has "it smells of elbow-grease," and a 1699 dictionary of slang defined it as a mock term for sweat. It is still offered, with a grin, as the secret ingredient for any tough cleaning job.
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