elbow bump

noun

plural elbow bumps

: a gesture in which two people bump their elbows together especially as an alternative to a handshake

It was before the public was told to wear masks, before the elbow bump became the new handshake, before all of the symptoms were known.

—CNN Wire

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, also attended the ceremony in New York, and he chatted with Mr. Biden, trading an elbow bump in lieu of a handshake, a nod to the pandemic.

—Annie Karni et al.

Examples of elbow bump in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And tell your baby to elbow bump other babies rather than shake hands. —Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes, 23 Oct. 2024

In London’s financial district, not even a global pandemic, lockdowns, and new levels of respect for colleagues’ personal space (remember the elbow bump?) were enough to kill Wolf of Wall Street-era antics. —Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 25 Apr. 2024

Does anyone still elbow bump? —Petula Dvorak, Washington Post, 13 Apr. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1981, in the meaning defined above