white elephant

American  

noun

1. a possession unwanted by the owner but difficult to dispose of.

   Our Victorian bric-a-brac and furniture were white elephants.

2. a possession entailing great expense out of proportion to its usefulness or value to the owner.

   When he bought the mansion he didn't know it was going to be such a white elephant.

3. an abnormally whitish or pale elephant, usually found in Thailand; an albino elephant.

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white elephant British  

noun

1. a rare albino or pale grey variety of the Indian elephant, regarded as sacred in parts of S Asia

2. a possession that is unwanted by its owner

3. an elaborate venture, construction, etc, that proves useless

4. a rare or valuable possession the upkeep of which is very expensive

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white elephant Cultural  

1. An unwanted or financially burdensome possession, or a project that turns out to be of limited value: “The new office building turned out to be a white elephant once the company decided to move its headquarters.”

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white elephant Idioms  

1. An unwanted or useless item, as in The cottage at the lake had become a real white elephant—too run down to sell, yet costly to keep up, or Grandma's ornate silver is a white elephant; no one wants it but it's too valuable to discard. This expression comes from a legendary former Siamese custom whereby an albino elephant, considered sacred, could only be owned by the king. The king would bestow such an animal on a subject with whom he was displeased and wait until the high cost of feeding the animal, which could not be slaughtered, ruined the owner. The story was told in England in the 1600s, and in the 1800s the term began to be used figuratively.

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Etymology

Origin of white elephant

First recorded in 1850–55; from the perhaps apocryphal tale that the King of Siam would award a disagreeable courtier a white elephant, the upkeep of which would ruin the courtier

Example Sentences

Not even the banks know what to do with this gargantuan white elephant.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 9, 2025

During a debate in the House of Lords, Conservative peer Lord Forsyth called the project a "complete white elephant and a disaster".

From BBC • Jun. 12, 2025

Costing £250m, it was substantially cheaper than Supertram but critics said it lacked ambition, while others branded it a costly white elephant, noting that nowhere else in the UK had built a new trolleybus line.

From BBC • Jun. 7, 2025

According to Buddhist lore, when she conceived, the queen dreamed that an auspicious white elephant entered her womb.

From Seattle Times • May 11, 2024

On the page, red diamond-covered trailers passed by first, and each one advertised its contents: roaring lions and tigers, charging rhinos and furious hippos, and a majestic white elephant at the very end.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton

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