"see the elephant" meaning in English

See see the elephant in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-see the elephant.ogg Forms: sees the elephant [present, singular, third-person], seeing the elephant [participle, present], saw the elephant [past], seen the elephant [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|see<,,saw,seen> the elephant}} see the elephant (third-person singular simple present sees the elephant, present participle seeing the elephant, simple past saw the elephant, past participle seen the elephant)
  1. (US, obsolete, slang) To witness something unexpected and awe-inspiring. Tags: US, obsolete, slang
    Sense id: en-see_the_elephant-en-verb-GzFwCuwd Categories (other): American English
  2. (US, obsolete, slang) To be up to the latest moves; to be knowing and worldly. Tags: US, obsolete, slang
    Sense id: en-see_the_elephant-en-verb-4fBnfm3n Categories (other): American English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 23 50 21 5 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 21 50 20 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 18 57 17 9
  3. (US, American Civil War, slang) To witness or participate in a battle. Tags: US, slang
    Sense id: en-see_the_elephant-en-verb-en:see_combat__witness_or_participate_in_battle Categories (other): American English
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see see, the, elephant.
    Sense id: en-see_the_elephant-en-verb-NvcGR0dO

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sees the elephant",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "seeing the elephant",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saw the elephant",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "seen the elephant",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "see<,,saw,seen> the elephant"
      },
      "expansion": "see the elephant (third-person singular simple present sees the elephant, present participle seeing the elephant, simple past saw the elephant, past participle seen the elephant)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To witness something unexpected and awe-inspiring."
      ],
      "id": "en-see_the_elephant-en-verb-GzFwCuwd",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, obsolete, slang) To witness something unexpected and awe-inspiring."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "obsolete",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "23 50 21 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "21 50 20 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 57 17 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1846, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, page 338:",
          "text": "\"[W]hy he's a natural born carakter. He is the best hand at a yarn in all west country, and will whip more cats, tell more lies, and eat more pork, than any fellow in Texas. […] [H]e's rare, jist the chap, and no mistake. He's seen the elephant, I imagine, a little more nor twice, I expect.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be up to the latest moves; to be knowing and worldly."
      ],
      "id": "en-see_the_elephant-en-verb-4fBnfm3n",
      "links": [
        [
          "knowing",
          "knowing"
        ],
        [
          "worldly",
          "worldly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, obsolete, slang) To be up to the latest moves; to be knowing and worldly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "obsolete",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To witness or participate in a battle."
      ],
      "id": "en-see_the_elephant-en-verb-en:see_combat__witness_or_participate_in_battle",
      "links": [
        [
          "battle",
          "battle"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "American Civil War",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, American Civil War, slang) To witness or participate in a battle."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:see combat, witness or participate in battle"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see see, the, elephant."
      ],
      "id": "en-see_the_elephant-en-verb-NvcGR0dO",
      "links": [
        [
          "see",
          "see#English"
        ],
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "elephant",
          "elephant#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-see the elephant.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/fb/En-au-see_the_elephant.ogg/En-au-see_the_elephant.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/En-au-see_the_elephant.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "see the elephant"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sees the elephant",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "seeing the elephant",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saw the elephant",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "seen the elephant",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "see<,,saw,seen> the elephant"
      },
      "expansion": "see the elephant (third-person singular simple present sees the elephant, present participle seeing the elephant, simple past saw the elephant, past participle seen the elephant)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with obsolete senses"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To witness something unexpected and awe-inspiring."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, obsolete, slang) To witness something unexpected and awe-inspiring."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "obsolete",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1846, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, page 338:",
          "text": "\"[W]hy he's a natural born carakter. He is the best hand at a yarn in all west country, and will whip more cats, tell more lies, and eat more pork, than any fellow in Texas. […] [H]e's rare, jist the chap, and no mistake. He's seen the elephant, I imagine, a little more nor twice, I expect.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be up to the latest moves; to be knowing and worldly."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "knowing",
          "knowing"
        ],
        [
          "worldly",
          "worldly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, obsolete, slang) To be up to the latest moves; to be knowing and worldly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "obsolete",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To witness or participate in a battle."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "battle",
          "battle"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "American Civil War",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, American Civil War, slang) To witness or participate in a battle."
      ],
      "senseid": [
        "en:see combat, witness or participate in battle"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see see, the, elephant."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "see",
          "see#English"
        ],
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "elephant",
          "elephant#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-see the elephant.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/fb/En-au-see_the_elephant.ogg/En-au-see_the_elephant.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/En-au-see_the_elephant.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "see the elephant"
}

Download raw JSONL data for see the elephant meaning in English (2.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (f074e77 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.