white elephant
1
6.1
- noun
- /ˈwaɪt ˈɛlɪfənt/
- Informal
:
carga pesada
- Yes, they might be the best thing since sliced bread; however, equally, they might be a white elephant siphoning off scarce resources when the real solution is under our nose.
- become a white elephant
Examples
-
Well, Mrs. Pierce, how does it feel to be the owner of a white elephant?
-
Unable to deliver those benefits, the central power plant, like much bulk electric transmission, will soon become a white elephant, uneconomic to run and difficult to sell.
Academic text (1999) -
A white elephant is a gift whose maintenance cost is greater than its value.
Academic text (2013) -
I'm afraid that plant will sit there like a huge white elephant.
Blog text (10) -
The issue's not just the unpaid debts, but the ongoing cost of maintenance required to preserve any value these white elephant projects may still have.
-
By the nineties, the Astrodome was a white elephant.
Academic text (2004) -
Now, public funding that could've gone to better causes is tied up in the white elephant that is the Marlins.
Blog text (5) -
The Winter Garden had been vacant for several years and was viewed by most city planners as a white elephant too expensive to restore just to keep history alive.
Fiction book (1999) -
Nevertheless, utilities should avoid the trap because they will be saddled with the cleanup costs for white elephants that can't make money even after the loans default.
Blog text (5) -
Many families find that the large aquarium they bought turned into a costly white elephant that takes too much time to maintain.
Antonyms
How Costly
17
5.5
- Informal
6
7.3
- Informal
1
6.1
- Informal
2
4.2
1
3.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
white + elephant
The literal constituents 'white' (a color) and 'elephant' (an animal) do not transparently yield the meaning 'an expensive, burdensome possession'; the idiomatic sense derives from a culturally specific historical metaphor (sacred/rare white elephants that cost a lot to maintain). A B1 learner who knows both words but has not encountered the expression would be unlikely to infer this figurative meaning, so it is opaque.
Etymology
White elephant comes from stories of rulers who gave these rare, sacred elephants as 'gifts' that were costly to keep; because the animals were expensive and could not be used, keeping one became a burden, so the phrase now means 'a possession that is expensive and difficult to maintain'.