elephant
IPA: ˈɛɫʌfʌnt
noun
- A mammal of the order Proboscidea, having a trunk, and two large ivory tusks jutting from the upper jaw.
- (in particular) Any member of the subfamily Elephantinae not also of the genera Mammuthus and Primelephas.
- (figuratively) Anything huge and ponderous.
- (paper, printing) Synonym of elephant paper
- (Britain, childish) used when counting to add length, so that each count takes about one second
- (uncountable, obsolete) Ivory.
- (xiangqi) A xiangqi piece that is moved two points diagonally, may not jump over intervening pieces and may not cross the river.
- The 105th sura (chapter) of the Quran.
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Examples of "elephant" in Sentences
- In Arabian literature the elephant is always connected with India.
- He writes of his safe arrival at what he calls the elephant-pens, and as a matter of course too late.
- Mr. Davies also points to what he calls the elephant in the room - the fact that Britain remains outside of the euro zone.
- While you may think the elephant is yours and yours alone, even the most solitary of projects are easier to digest with the right team and network in place.
- Alvin Blyer, regional director of the Brooklyn office of the NLRB, brought attention to what he described as the elephant in the room: the immigration and legal status of the workers.
- The head of an athletic department in the mighty Southeastern Conference says the biggest problem with meeting gender equity is what he calls the elephant in the room: College football.
- Over the past four years, Maryland's governor and legislators have gone to extraordinary pains to pretend this elephant is not in their living room, even as it strains our fiscal solvency.
- His snout was drawn out so as to form that wonderful elongated thing with two nostrils at the end which we call the elephant's trunk, and was henceforth transmitted (a first-rate example of an "acquired character") to future generations!
- This lower jaw seemed incomprehensible, almost a monstrosity -- until it occurred to me that it exactly corresponds to the elongated upper lip and nose which we call the elephant's trunk -- and that the trunk of "Tetrabelodon" must have rested on his long lower jaw.
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