white elephant

noun

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of white elephant

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

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Recent Examples of white elephant from the Web

Perennials for sun and shade, bulbs, herbs, and unusual plants from members' own gardens will be available along with a gardener's white elephant table.

— Courant Community, "Community News For The Vernon Edition," 3 Apr. 2018
The coming Farber show seems to be a history lesson: Molesworth the termite curator working in the white elephant museum, putting some Rauschenberg in storage to make room for a Woelffer and Asawa.

— christopher knight, latimes.com, "MOCA still mum about curator's firing, despite crucial questions and too few answers," 20 Mar. 2018
The International Olympic Committee warned in August that the venues could become white elephants.

— Washington Post, "Forget tourism: Pyeongchang’s legacy probably debt and anger," 20 Feb. 2018
State Fair Park Board Chairman John Yingling has heard all the naysayers who have called the facility a white elephant.

— dave kallmann, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Without a major auto race, Milwaukee Mile's future shadows Wisconsin State Fair Park," 15 Jan. 2018
Following the meeting, a white elephant exchange will take place.

— rich heileman, cleveland.com, "'ChickNBeer' to join list of University Market eateries: Around The Town," 26 Jan. 2018
The free event kicks off at 7 p.m. and features food and drinks, plus games, comics and a white elephant gift exchange (guests interested in participating are asked to bring a gift valued at $20 or less).

— courtney ortega, star-telegram, "Celebrate female friendship at these local Galentine’s Day events," 25 Jan. 2018
Workman wheeled himself to the church hall, where a game of white elephant with the congregants awaited.

— silvia foster-frau, San Antonio Express-News, "Sutherland Springs continues its Christmas traditions as families and victims recover from massacre," 23 Dec. 2017
The goal of a white elephant party is usually to entertain rather than to gain, and Ted Larsen, the team’s starting left guard, made sure that was the case this holiday season.

— omar kelly, Sun-Sentinel.com, "Dolphins' not-so-secret Santa gifts clunker car to teammate | Video," 21 Dec. 2017

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

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.