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/waɪt ˈɛləfənt/ Listen

White elephant

noun

A valuable possession whose upkeep is excessively expensive.

Albinic Indian elephant; rare and sometimes venerated in east Asia.

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"White elephant" Quotes from Famous Books

... in Polktown ye won't," said the expressman. "Yeou might as well try ter raffle off a white elephant." ...

— How Janice Day Won • Helen Beecher Long

... the way. And when he came down to the earth again he had lost all the presents except the pudding, but he had held that all the way down. So he sold it to a man for forty million hundred dollars; and then he was so rich that they made him King of Siam, and he rode on a white elephant with pink ears all ...

— Five Mice in a Mouse-trap - by the Man in the Moon. • Laura E. Richards

... to visit Mrs. Jones, who lives at 28, White Elephant Buildings. Mr. Jones is a painter at work for eight months in the year, if he has good luck, but out of work always at that time of the year when housekeeping expenses are highest. For every working man's wife will tell you ...

— London's Underworld • Thomas Holmes

... have bestowed what to us appear as ridiculous titles of honour on their princes. The king of Arracan assumes the following ones: "Emperor of Arracan, possessor of the white elephant, and the two ear-rings, and in virtue of this possession legitimate heir of Pegu and Brama; lord of the twelve provinces of Bengal, and the twelve kings who place ...

— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... white elephant in Miss Emily's window. Painfully she had seen her supply dwindle. For this last of the herd, she had a feeling far in excess of his value, such as a collector might have for a rare coin of a certain minting, or a bit of pottery of a ...

— The Tin Soldier • Temple Bailey

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