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Elephant   /ˈɛləfənt/   Listen
noun
Elephant  n.  
1.
(Zoöl.) A mammal of the order Proboscidia and family Elephantidae, of which two living species, Elephas maximus (formerly Elephas Indicus) and Loxodonta Africana (formerly E. Africanus), and several fossil species, are known. They have five toes, a long proboscis or trunk, and two large ivory tusks proceeding from the extremity of the upper jaw, and curving upwards. The molar teeth are large and have transverse folds. Elephants are the largest land animals now existing. The elephant is classed as a pachyderm.
2.
Ivory; the tusk of the elephant. (Obs.)
Elephant apple (Bot.), an East Indian fruit with a rough, hard rind, and edible pulp, borne by Feronia elephantum, a large tree related to the orange.
Elephant bed (Geol.), at Brighton, England, abounding in fossil remains of elephants.
Elephant beetle (Zoöl.), any very large beetle of the genus Goliathus (esp. G. giganteus), of the family Scarabaeidae. They inhabit West Africa.
Elephant fish (Zoöl.), a chimaeroid fish (Callorhynchus antarcticus), with a proboscis-like projection of the snout.
Elephant paper, paper of large size, 23 times 28 inches.
Double elephant paper, paper measuring 26¾ times 40 inches. See Note under Paper.
Elephant seal (Zoöl.), an African jumping shrew (Macroscelides typicus), having a long nose like a proboscis.
Elephant's ear (Bot.), a name given to certain species of the genus Begonia, which have immense one-sided leaves.
Elephant's foot (Bot.)
(a)
A South African plant (Testudinaria Elephantipes), which has a massive rootstock covered with a kind of bark cracked with deep fissures; called also tortoise plant. The interior part is barely edible, whence the plant is also called Hottentot's bread.
(b)
A genus (Elephantopus) of coarse, composite weeds.
Elephant's tusk (Zoöl.), the tooth shell. See Dentalium.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Elephant" Quotes from Famous Books



... raging showers gave us views of the drowning jungle under another aspect, and between them we awakened vast rolling echoes across the silent flooded world by shooting at flocks of little birds with an army rifle that would have killed an elephant. ...
— Zone Policeman 88 - A Close Range Study of the Panama Canal and its Workers • Harry A. Franck

... in mountain-climbing which I should like to speak of, by the way, and which makes it much pleasanter and better exercise. If, after first starting—and, of course, you should start very slowly and heavily, like an elephant—you get out of breath, let yourself stay out of breath. Even emphasize the being out of breath by breathing harder than your lungs started to breathe, and then let your lungs pump and pump and pump until they find their own equilibrium. The result is delightful, and the physical freedom ...
— Nerves and Common Sense • Annie Payson Call

... been already remarked by writers,—though that will not prevent me from repeating it,—that, of all the four-footed friends of man, none, not even that corpulent chap, Elephant, has contributed more voluminously to the literature of anecdote than that first-rate fellow, Dog. Let me also take the liberty of recalling, in corroboration of others who have previously drawn attention to the same fact, that from the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 • Various

... In its rich affluence of imagery this story is like a picture by Mantegna, and indeed Mantegna might have suggested the description of the pageant in which Denys rides upon a gaily-painted chariot, in soft silken raiment and, for head-dress, a strange elephant ...
— Reviews • Oscar Wilde

... female, and a small one. When it re-appeared harpoons and lances were at once driven into it, and it was killed almost immediately. This is not always the result of such an encounter, for this elephant of the polar seas is naturally a ferocious brute, and when bulls are attacked they are prone to show fight ...
— The Walrus Hunters - A Romance of the Realms of Ice • R.M. Ballantyne


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