They had to 'grease the palms of' a few inspectors at city hall to get the permits they needed to start building.
They hoped that the tax cuts would 'grease the wheels' of the economy. [=would help the economy work better]
It's going to take some 'elbow grease' to get this counter clean.
(..) Same thing works the other way. You feed me a bust now and then. SmaII fry, you know? We Iike snacks. How do I know you're the Iast cop I'm gonna have to grease? What about Fort LauderdaIe? Metro? DEA? How do I know what rock they're gonna crawI out from under? WeII, that's not my business, Tony. (..)1983 Scarface