rub elbows

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rub elbows (third-person singular simple present rubs elbows, present participle rubbing elbows, simple past and past participle rubbed elbows)

1. (idiomatic, usually followed by with) To associate closely; to socialize, consort, or mingle.
   • 1893, Stanley J. Weyman, chapter 2, in A Gentleman of France:

     [S]adness and poverty are never more intolerable than when hope and wealth rub elbows with them.

   • 1901, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter 9, in The Marrow of Tradition:

     It was distasteful enough to rub elbows with an illiterate and vulgar white man of no ancestry.

   • 1922, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in The Day of the Beast:

     He just wanted to rub elbows with this throng of young people.

   • 2001 June 24, Jacob V. Lamar, “Look Away, Dixieland”, in Time:

     Cowboys in ten-gallon hats and snakeskin boots rub elbows with yuppies dressed for success.

• rub shoulders
• hobnob (hob-nob) (often synonymous)

• bump elbows (“a form of greeting in lieu of handshaking”) (not to be confused)

• rub elbows at OneLook Dictionary Search