ELEPHANT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does elephant mean? 

• ELEPHANT (noun)
  The noun ELEPHANT has 2 senses:

1. five-toed pachyderm

2. the symbol of the Republican Party; introduced in cartoons by Thomas Nast in 1874

  Familiarity information: ELEPHANT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ELEPHANT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Five-toed pachyderm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("elephant" is a kind of...):

pachyderm (any of various nonruminant hoofed mammals having very thick skin: elephant; rhinoceros; hippopotamus)

proboscidean; proboscidian (massive herbivorous mammals having tusks and a long trunk)

Meronyms (parts of "elephant"):

tusk (a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog)

proboscis; trunk (a long flexible snout as of an elephant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "elephant"):

rogue elephant (a wild and vicious elephant separated from the herd)

Elephas maximus; Indian elephant (Asian elephant having smaller ears and tusks primarily in the male)

African elephant; Loxodonta africana (an elephant native to Africa having enormous flapping ears and ivory tusks)

mammoth (any of numerous extinct elephants widely distributed in the Pleistocene; extremely large with hairy coats and long upcurved tusks)

gomphothere (extinct elephants of Central American and South America; of the Miocene and Pleistocene)

Holonyms ("elephant" is a member of...):

Elephantidae; family Elephantidae (elephants)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The symbol of the Republican Party; introduced in cartoons by Thomas Nast in 1874

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("elephant" is a kind of...):

allegory; emblem (a visible symbol representing an abstract idea)

 Context examples 

"I see," I said. "You want big things that you can make your teeth meet in? How would you like to breakfast on elephant?"

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

When asked what might happen if elephants were to disappear from the region, Brodie responded, "That's the million-dollar question."

(Thai Elephants Help Spread Jungle Fruit's Seeds, Sadie Witkowski/VOA)

Although not among the largest of titanosaurians, Rukwatitan is estimated to have forelimbs reaching 2 meters and may have weighed as much as several elephants.

(Paleontologists discover new species of titanosaurian dinosaur in Tanzania, NSF)

“Siamese breed, sir. Now, little elephant!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It is like the dead-march of a gnat amid the trumpeting of elephants and the roaring of lions.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It is a most tremendous monster, like a great spider, with a body as big as an elephant and legs as long as a tree trunk.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

There was nothing the young gentleman would have liked better, but elephants could not have dragged him back after the scolding he had received.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In shape they were like horrible toads, and moved in a succession of springs, but in size they were of an incredible bulk, larger than the largest elephant.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Increasingly globalised trade saw elephant ivory flood European markets in the 13th century, and fashions changed.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

The team discovered that there was little evidence for holding the region's fast-growing elephant population accountable for the forest loss.

(Land cover change in Botswana savannas: Don't blame the elephants, National Science Foundation)