heffalump
an elephant(A child's name for) an elephant.
Meaning
3 senses(childish, humorous)(A child's name for) an elephant.
We went to the zoo and saw some heffalumps.
(figuratively, informal)Something that is elusive.
(derogatory, slang)A clumsy or overweight person.
слонопота́мslonopotám
Translations
4 languagesOrigin
Probably a childish mispronunciation of elephant, perhaps influenced by half a lump (as inProbably a childish mispronunciation of elephant, perhaps influenced by half a lump (as in "I'll have half a lump of sugar in my tea"), coined by the English author Alan Alexander Milne (1882–1956) as the name of an imaginary animal in his book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). The animal was not described in the book, but the illustrator Ernest Howard Shepard (1879–1976) depicted it as an elephant.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: heffalumpsWord family
1 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.