Word.ws English Dictionary

see the elephant

see the elephant verb: to witness something unexpected and awe-inspiring.

Verb

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.
  2. (US, obsolete, slang) To be up to the latest moves; to be knowing and worldly.
    • "[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."1846, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, page 338
  3. (US, slang, American Civil War) To witness or participate in a battle.
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see see, the, elephant.

Forms of see the elephant

third-person singular presentsees the elephant
present participleseeing the elephant
pastsaw the elephant
past participleseen the elephant

Questions about see the elephant

What does see the elephant mean?
See the elephant means to witness something unexpected and awe-inspiring.
What part of speech is see the elephant?
See the elephant is a verb.
What is the past tense of see the elephant?
The past tense of see the elephant is saw the elephant.

Words near see the elephant in the dictionary

  1. see stars
  2. see that
  3. see the back of
  4. see the dark side of the moon
  5. see the day
  6. see the elephant
  7. see the error of one's ways
  8. see the forest but for the trees
  9. see the forest for the trees
  10. see the forest through the trees
  11. see the glass half-empty

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: see the elephant (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-see the elephant.ogg.

Cite this entry: “see the elephant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/see_the_elephant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.