🗓️ Idiom: A White Elephant (n)
💬 Meaning
- A costly project or asset that brings more trouble than it is worth.
- Something expensive and difficult to maintain but with little real value.
🧠 Example Sentences
- The fancy office space turned out to be a white elephant that drained their budget.
- Their custom-built software became a white elephant—too complex and no one wanted to use it.
- The startup’s flagship product looked impressive but was a white elephant in the market.
🏛️ Origin
The idiom comes from a tradition in Southeast Asia, where rare white elephants were considered sacred but extremely expensive to care for. Giving one as a gift could ruin the receiver financially—just like an unprofitable investment today.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Their new warehouse was a __________—huge, expensive, and totally unnecessary.
Answer
white elephant
2. Choose the correct meaning:
What does “a white elephant” mean in business?
A) A profitable asset
B) An expensive burden
C) A valuable opportunity
Answer
B) An expensive burden
3. Change the sentence using “a white elephant”:
“Their new app looked great but was expensive and hardly anyone used it.”
Answer
Their new app was a white elephant.
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