heffalump

plural heffalumps · alternative Heffalump

1. childishhumorous(A child's name for) an elephant.

   We went to the zoo and saw some heffalumps.

   4 more examples

   Mrs. Jumbo stood at the door with the baby heffalump in her arms. She waved a large blue handkerchief and heffalump waved his little white paws. "Goodbye, Daddy Jumbo, Goodbye" they cried. "Goodbye Mummy Jumbo, goodbye baby heffalump."

   1973, The Malahat Review, Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 82

   From time to time to time, bones clearly recognized as those of elephants have been found in the North Temperate Zone. In Western Europe the explanation always was, "These are the remains of the army-elephants of Hannibal the Carthaginian." […

   1983 January, Avram Davidson, “Adventures in Unhistory: What Gave All Those Mammoths Cold Feet?”, in [George H. Scithers], editor, Amazing Science Fiction Stories, volume 28, number 9, Lake Geneva, Wis.: Dragon Publishing, TSR Hobbies, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 90

   Yeees, we're going to the zoo to see animals. There are lions and tiggers and snakes and heffalumps.

   2007, Nuno Morais, chapter 1, in Margaret Hart, transl., Spare Parts (Unholy Commerce; 1), Chicago, Ill.: Babelcube, published April 2020, →ISBN

   In the "Heffalumps and Woozles" ditty from Winnie the Pooh, elephants—those would be the heffalumps—wear tuxedos and use their trunks as accordions and suddenly turn blue. Fantastical, to be sure, but it's downright unimaginative compared to what European natural historians used to believe about the elephant: That it has no knees and it can't have sex until it eats the ridiculously toxic mandrake root, and even when it successfully mates, dragons eat its baby.

   2014 May 11, Matt Simon, “Fantastically Wrong: History’s Most Hilarious Misconceptions about the Elephant”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2020

2. figurativelyinformalSomething that is elusive.

   In fact, some researchers are skeptical about the feasibility of constructing such an index and describe it as a "search for [a] heffalump" [...] or looking for a "Holy Grail" [...].

   2009, Zoltán J. Ács, László Szerb, “The History of Entrepreneurship Index Building”, in The Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEINDEX) (Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship; vol. 5, no. 5), Hanover, Mass.; Delft: Now Publishers, →ISBN, page 13

   1 more example

   With the study in this chapter, we continue the hunt for the Heffalump to answer the 'who is the entrepreneur' question [...]. The Heffalump is a character from Winnie-the-Pooh that has been hunted by many individuals using various ingenious trapping devices, but no one has succeeded in capturing it so far. All who claim to have caught sight of it report that it is enormous, but they disagree on its particularities [...].

   2008, Eva Cools, “The Hunt for the Heffalump Continues: Who is the Flemish Entrepreneur?”, in Hans Landström, Hans Crijns, Eddy Laveren, David Smallbone, editors, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Growth and Performance: Frontiers in European Entrepreneurship Research, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar Publishing, →ISBN, part II (Entrepreneurs and Their Role), page 30

3. derogatoryslangA clumsy or overweight person.

   'What are you, thumping around like fucking heffalumps? The twins are trying to get to sleep,' he says, staring at us on the bed.

   2014, Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl, London: Ebury Press, →ISBN

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   Violet, under the auspices of Jacques-Yves Cabillaud, had been continuing to expand her childish girth. At two she had already been pronounced a heffalump; by seven, she was the size and shape of a barrel.

   1997, Liz Jensen, “The Scrapie Dinosaur”, in Ark Baby, London: Bloomsbury, published 2011, →ISBN

   As I sat in my Virgin seat, I spotted an enormous fat bloke waddling towards me and thought: Please, God, not him. There's nothing worse than sitting next to a heaving heffalump on an 11-hour flight, not least because they eat all the best food.

   2009, Piers Morgan, chapter 3, in Misadventures of a Big Mouth Brit, London: Ebury Press, published 2010, →ISBN, page 117

   'Seven-thirty, then,' she agreed, because for some perverse reason she wanted to go home after her surgery, shower and change into something—well, something else. Something pretty. Something that didn't make her feel like a heffalump.

   2010, Caroline Anderson, Christmas Eve Baby (Brides of Penhally Bay), Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Enterprises, →ISBN, page 60

   Every time Chloe met Natalia she felt like some lumbering heffalump compared to the diminutive but full-chested South American beauty who had perfect chocolate brown hair, matching eyes and permanently tanned skin.

   2012, Anna Hutton-North, chapter 5, in Rural Affairs (Drayton Beauchamp Series), [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 32

   They're bound to be whoppers, aren't they, competitive eaters? Lard-buckets. Human dumpsters. Mega-heffalumps. Not at all. This hard-to-swallow documentary comes to show us that top-class scoffers are actually athletes, not only fit but thinner than average.

   2019 June 13, David Sexton, “Battle of the Super-Eaters: 3,000 Calories a Minute: Britain’s got talent? You’ll believe it when you feast your eyes on our top gobblers”, in George Osborne, editor, Evening Standard, London: Evening Standard, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Dec 2020

   Synonyms: All are derogatory unless otherwise labeled, butterball, chod, chodder, chubbs, chubster, chunker, chunky monkey · Antonyms: thin person

plural Heffalumps

1. Alternative letter-case form of heffalump.

   1 more example

   With the study in this chapter, we continue the hunt for the Heffalump to answer the 'who is the entrepreneur' question [...]. The Heffalump is a character from Winnie-the-Pooh that has been hunted by many individuals using various ingenious trapping devices, but no one has succeeded in capturing it so far. All who claim to have caught sight of it report that it is enormous, but they disagree on its particularities [...].

   2008, Eva Cools, “The Hunt for the Heffalump Continues: Who is the Flemish Entrepreneur?”, in Hans Landström, Hans Crijns, Eddy Laveren, David Smallbone, editors, Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Growth and Performance: Frontiers in European Entrepreneurship Research, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; Northampton, Mass.: Edward Elgar Publishing, →ISBN, part II (Entrepreneurs and Their Role), page 30