pink elephants

plural noun

|Updated on: 17 Jun 2018

Definition of pink elephants

: hallucinations arising especially from heavy drinking or use of narcotics

began to see pink elephants

Recent Examples of pink elephants from the Web

The Trailer for Tim Burton's Live-Action Dumbo Is Only a Little Scary Disney There's just one pink elephant.

— joshua rivera, GQ, "The Trailer for Tim Burton's Live-Action Dumbo Is Only a Little Scary," 13 June 2018
For starts, Beard -- a New Orleans artist and author best known for his frenetic deceptions of wildlife -- lives in a pink elephant surrounded by a menagerie.

— susan langenhennig, NOLA.com, "Bohemian rhapsody: Artist Alex Beard fills a Garden District manse with art, heirlooms and curiosities," 11 Oct. 2017
Beard calls it the pink elephant, given its rosy paint job and grand Garden District size (more than 5,000 square feet).

— susan langenhennig, NOLA.com, "Bohemian rhapsody: Artist Alex Beard fills a Garden District manse with art, heirlooms and curiosities," 11 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'pink elephants.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.