Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for elephantine

elephantine

[ el-uh-fan-teen, -tahyn, -tin, el-uh-fuhn-teen, -tahyn ]

adjective

  1. pertaining to or resembling an elephant.
  2. huge, ponderous, or clumsy:

    elephantine movements; elephantine humor.



elephantine

/ ˌɛlɪˈfæntaɪn /

adjective

  1. denoting, relating to, or characteristic of an elephant or elephants
  2. huge, clumsy, or ponderous
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of elephantine1

1620–30; < Latin elephantinus < Greek elephántinos. See elephant, -ine 1
Discover More

Example Sentences

Lloyd Grove on the elephantine cleanup challenges of having an unruly collection of egomaniacs as backers.

General Botha was big, large and great in body and brain—elephantine!

They, like the press as a whole, were obviously waiting to see which way the great elephantine public would jump.

The Professor, as I remembered him, had an elephantine sense of humour capable of the most clumsy and unwieldly gambollings.

He bowed and shrugged and spread open his hands as he spoke with his elaborate and elephantine sarcasm.

There was something elephantine about his nature that prevented him from being simple or casual in his moods.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


elephantiasiselephant in the room