white elephant

plural white elephants

1. figurativelyA possession that is unwanted or is a financial burden; an unprofitable investment.

   South Australia's "white elephant" was really going to prove a valuable possession after all!

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 140

   2 more examples

   Some of the stadiums being built for the World Cup soccer tournament, scheduled for next year, have also been criticized for delays and cost overruns, and have become subjects of derision as protesters question whether they will become white elephants.

   2013 June 18, Simon Romero, “Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders”, in New York Times, retrieved 21 Jun 2013

   In your story about Chinese success, you spend a lot of time on the shadow side of these big projects. Some of these projects look like white elephants. They look like airports built when there aren’t enough people flying or apartment blocks built that lots of people don’t want to live in.

   2025 September 4, Ross Douthat, “This Is Why America Is Losing to China”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

2. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of white elephant exchange.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see white, elephant.