elephant race
elephant race noun: a situation in which one truck tries to overtake another at a slightly higher speed, blocking the road for passenger car drivers behind.
Noun
elephant race (plural elephant races)
- A situation in which one truck tries to overtake another at a slightly higher speed, blocking the road for passenger car drivers behind.
- The faster trucker often feels forced to get out of their lane to maintain speed, but this causes an elephant race. At a difference of 3-5 MPH, it might take several minutes before the faster driver has both passed the slower truck and moved far enough ahead to get back in their lane.2020 November 12, “The Elephant Race Explained”, in Gulf South Law Firm, archived from the original on 29 Jan 2026
- Merging too early could cause their trailer to impact against the slower truck. Which means elephant races aren’t over until both trucks are back in the travel lane.2021 September 9, “The Truth About 18-Wheeler Elephant Races”, in Wood Law Firm, archived from the original on 29 Jan 2026
Forms of elephant race
| plural | elephant races |
|---|
Origin of elephant race
Calque of German Elefantenrennen.
Questions about elephant race
- What does elephant race mean?
- Elephant race means a situation in which one truck tries to overtake another at a slightly higher speed, blocking the road for passenger car drivers behind.
- What part of speech is elephant race?
- Elephant race is a noun.
- What is the plural of elephant race?
- The plural of elephant race is elephant races.
Words near elephant race in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: elephant race (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “elephant race.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/elephant_race. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.