white elephant
Sign in to saveAlso known as large useless work(s)
idiom – name for large constructions that are not used
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- phraseme
- Subclass of
- property
- Named after
- white elephant
- Image
- The White Elephant, Punch 103.png
- Said to be same as
- Boondoggle
Show 2 more facts
- indigenous to
- English language
- hashtag
- GPII
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A white elephant at the Amarapura Palace in 1855 A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc., considered to lack utility or value relative to its high capital (acquisition) and/or operational (maintenance) costs.
Historical background
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “white elephant” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.