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.

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

white elephant

noun

: something requiring much care and expense and giving little profit or enjoyment

Etymology

so called from the fact that in India and neighboring countries, light-colored elephants are treated as sacred and kept without being put to work