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white elephant (n.)
"burdensome charge, inconvenient thing that one does not know how to get rid of," 1851, 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 proper upkeep of one was ruinously expensive.
updated on August 11, 2014
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Dictionary entries near white elephant
whistler
whistling
whit
white
white bread
white elephant
white feather
white hope
white meat
white noise
white trash