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white elephant

noun

1
: an Asian elephant of a pale color that is sometimes venerated in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar
2
a
: a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit
b
: an object no longer of value to its owner but of value to others
c
: something of little or no value

Did you know?

The real white elephant (the kind with a trunk) is a pale pachyderm that has long been an object of veneration in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar. Too revered to be a beast of burden, the white elephant earned a reputation as a burdensome beast—one that required constant care and feeding but never brought a single cent (or paisa or satang or pya) to its owner. One story has it that the kings of Siam (the old name for Thailand) gave white elephants as gifts to those they wished to ruin, hoping that the cost of maintaining the voracious but sacred mammal would drive its new owner to the poorhouse.

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web One tech project that was launched amid optimism, labeled as the ‘first smart city south of the Sahara’ is the Konza Technopolis digital city that has become a white elephant nine years after it was conceived. Faustine Ngila, Quartz, 16 Aug. 2022 The group provides lunch and members are asked to bring their own beverage and lawn chair along with a $5 wrapped white elephant gift. San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 Aug. 2022 Cold storage alone, without training and a viable business model, risks becoming a white elephant. Nicola Twilley, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2022 Industry may also balk at creating and supporting a white elephant without any assurances of sustained funding from the government. Rakesh Kumar, Fortune, 14 July 2022 Soon, the white elephant of a painting was relegated to an out-of-the-way staircase in the Capitol, largely hidden from public view. Samantha Baskind, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 July 2022 While some critics have welcomed the plan as cutting-edge urban innovation, most have labeled it a half-baked idea that will inevitably leave a giant white elephant in the desert. Mo Abbas, NBC News, 30 July 2022 New housing and the extension of Canterbury Street will refresh the neighborhood and unload what could become a municipal white elephant, according to his administration. Don Stacom, Hartford Courant, 29 July 2022 But in the absence of a clear source for the additional $80 billion needed to get the tracks to San Francisco and Los Angeles, detractors see only a white elephant. Alan Ohnsman, Forbes, 16 July 2022 See More

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of white elephant was in the 15th century

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