white elephant
1850–55; from the perhaps apocryphal tale that the King of Siam would award a disagreeable courtier a white elephant, the upkeep of which would ruin the courtier
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc. |
| a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes. |
| white elephant | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a rare albino or pale grey variety of the Indian elephant, regarded as sacred in parts of S Asia |
| 2. | a possession that is unwanted by its owner |
| 3. | an elaborate venture, construction, etc, that proves useless |
| 4. | a rare or valuable possession the upkeep of which is very expensive |
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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white elephant
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white elephant definition
An unwanted or financially burdensome possession, or a project that turns out to be of limited value: “The new office building turned out to be a white elephant once the company decided to move its headquarters.”
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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white elephant definition
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Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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white elephant
An unwanted or useless item, as in The cottage at the lake had become a real white elephant
too run down to sell, yet costly to keep up, or Grandma's ornate silver is a white elephant; no one wants it but it's too valuable to discard. This expression comes from a legendary former Siamese custom whereby an albino elephant, considered sacred, could only be owned by the king. The king would bestow such an animal on a subject with whom he was displeased and wait until the high cost of feeding the animal, which could not be slaughtered, ruined the owner. The story was told in England in the 1600s, and in the 1800s the term began to be used figuratively.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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