expensive white elephant

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• white elephant — noun 1. a valuable possession whose upkeep is excessively expensive • Hypernyms: ↑possession 2. albinic Indian elephant; rare and sometimes venerated in east Asia • Hypernyms: ↑Indian elephant, ↑Elephas maximus * * * noun, pl ⋯ phants [count] :… …   Useful english dictionary

• white elephant — {n. phr.} Unwanted property, such as real estate, that is hard to sell. * /That big house of theirs on the corner sure is a white elephant./ …   Dictionary of American idioms

• white elephant — {n. phr.} Unwanted property, such as real estate, that is hard to sell. * /That big house of theirs on the corner sure is a white elephant./ …   Dictionary of American idioms

• white elephant — A white elephant is an expensive burden; something that costs far too much money to run, like the Millennium Dome in the UK …   The small dictionary of idiomes

• white elephant — 1851, inconvenient thing that can t be got rid of, supposedly from the practice of the King of Siam of presenting one of the sacred albino elephants to a courtier who had fallen from favor; the gift was a great honor, but the cost of proper… …   Etymology dictionary

• white elephant —    A white elephant is an expensive burden; something that costs far too much money to run, like the Millennium Dome in the UK.   (Dorking School Dictionary)    ***    If you call something a white elephant, you consider it useless although it… …   English Idioms & idiomatic expressions

• White Elephant — Any investment that nobody wants because it will most likely end up being unprofitable. An unprofitable investment, property or business that is so expensive to operate and maintain that it is extremely difficult to actually make a profit. An… …   Investment dictionary

• White elephant —   A white elephant is an expensive burden; something that costs far too much money to run, like the Millennium Dome in the UK …   Dictionary of English idioms

• white elephant — expensive investment that turns out to be useless and cannot be gotten rid of; object which is not needed, unnecessary item; species of elephant that is abnormally light …   English contemporary dictionary

• a white elephant — Meaning Something that is more trouble than it is worth. Origin White (albino) elephants were regarded as holy in ancient times in Thailand and other Asian countries. To keep a white elephant was a very expensive task, since you had to provide… …   Meaning and origin of phrases

• white elephant — noun a possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of. Origin from the story that the kings of Siam gave such animals as a gift to courtiers they disliked, in order to ruin the… …   English new terms dictionary