What Does The Phrase White Elephant In The Room Mean

The incident has remained something of an elephant in the room within our family.

What does the phrase white elephant in the room mean.

If there is anelephant in the room it means that an obvious problem is being ignored. White elephant an unwanted or useless item as in the cottage at the lake had become a real white elephant too run down to sell yet costly to keep up or grandma s ornate silver is a white elephant. Related words and phrases difficult situations and unpleasant experiences a heavy cross to bear idiom. Chicago is a word coined by the people that now prefer to be called native americans.

Jim arrived at work and his clothes were soaking wet. No one wants it but it s too valuable to discard. Related words and phrases difficult situations and unpleasant experiences a heavy cross to bear idiom. We all sat sipping our tea quietly no one wanting to bring up the elephant in the room about joel s expulsion from college.

Chicago that s an old indian word meaning get that elephant out of your room it isn t clear quite what the author of that intended but we can be sure he was being ironic. The expression elephant in the room usually the elephant in the room or the elephant in the living room is a metaphorical idiom in english for an important or enormous topic question or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about but no one mentions or wants to discuss because it makes at least some of them uncomfortable or is personally socially or politically embarrassing controversial inflammatory or dangerous. An obvious truth or fact especially one regarded as embarrassing or undesirable that is being intentionally ignored or left unaddressed. The elephant in the room would be a topic of conversation or a situation that a group of people are uncomfortable addressing but sooner or later it becomes unavoidable.

Put another way it is a noticeable issue that is not acknowledged or addressed. A white elephant is an expression used to describe something that at first seemed like a good idea but eventuates to be utterly useless. A leader s guide for helping children of alcoholics the idiom has generally been used frequently to describe social taboo subjects like foreign religions lgbtq suicide or even sex. If you say there is an elephant in the room you mean that there is an obvious problem or difficult situation that people do not want to talk about.