Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) sightseeing.

c.1888

Stag Party 15: He thought he would try a little elephant business in the city, and got one of his village acquaintances to make the trip with him.

(N.Z. prison) meatloaf.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 65/1: elephant cock n. prison meatloaf.

1. to see the world or something spectacular within it; usu. to have become bored and jaded by doing so; to be disappointed in one’s optimistic expectations [the exoticism of the creature; despite US origin, phr. poss. popularized in the UK by the appearance in London in 1867 of the original Jumbo, a major and much-loved attraction who was controversially sold to Barnum and Bailey’s Circus in 1882].

1835		A.B. Longstreet Georgia Scenes (1848) 10: That’s sufficient, as Tom Haynes said when he saw the elephant.
1845		G.W. Harris ‘The Knob Dance’ Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) XV July in Inge (1967) 45: He would ‘See the Elephant,’ sure!
1859		Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 3 Sept. 8/3: Few people have ‘seen the elephant’ as he really appears in our large cities, divested of his gilded trappings.
1858		G. Thompson Gay Girls of N.Y. 12: A rustic looking individual from the country, who has just come to town for the very commendable purpose of taking a good look at the elephant.
1862		letter q. in Wiley Life of Billy Yank (1952) 36: Frank since I seen you last I hav [sic] seen the elephant.
1866		H.L. Williams N.-Y. After Dark 36: They laugh to see a couple of carriages take the four ill-used countrymen who have seen the wolves while looking for the elephant, and Mother Franklin to the nearest headquarters in that precinct.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Sept. n.p.: After partaking of the good cheer, they started out to to see the ‘baby elephants’ of this city.
1878		J.H. Beadle Western Wilds iii. 45: My friend Will Wylie, who had seen the elephant in its entirety, from trunk to tail.
1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 29 Nov. 2/2: As startling a revelation as his first peep at ‘the elephant’ is to the freshest youth who ever journeyed to the the metropolis to view the animal.
1889		Puck’s Library (N.Y.) Apr. 25: Forepaugh says that elephants have a particular liking for whiskey. We have often wondered, when a man went out to see the elephant, why he always brought back such a strange odour with him. This seems to explain it [F&H].
1892		Newcastle Courant 26 Nov. 2/3: Americanisms [...] A person who is well-travelled [...] is said to have ‘seen the elephant’.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 219/1: Seen the elephant (American-English, 1880 on). Climax – witnessed the finish. From the universal American circus – whose chief attraction in country places is the elephant. Therefore the phrase means proud exultation, and is applied to boastful persons.

2. (also hunt the elephant) to seek out excitement, esp. in the context of going slumming in poor and/or dangerous urban areas.

1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 13: I’m agoin’ to the crib; see if you can’t pick up some cove as wants to see the elephant!
1856		Nat. Police Gaz. 13:33 3/1: These knucks are constantly at work at tippling places, short go-aways, break-ups, dry-goods trips, and especially where they go to see the elephant.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 210: The victim thinks it looks all right. He’ll go and see the elephant and get a drink; he needn’t play, of course, unless he wishes.
1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 22 Nov. 15/1: Seeing a great city after the lamp-lighter has done his rounds has always been a favourite amusement with those sportsmen who combine a keen desire to hunt the elephant with a natural disinclination to wander away from the comforts of home.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 16: see the elephant To have a good time; to see the sights.
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘Man About Town’ in Four Million (1915) 87: He makes his rounds every evening; while you and I see the elephant once a week.
1927		H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 188: A writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer, who went slumming, or as it was then called, elephant hunting, among the dives of New York in the early eighties.
1989		R. Atkinson Long Gray Line (1990) 230: Experiencing combat – ‘seeing the elephant,’ as Civil War soldiers once called it. [Ibid.] 236: Matt had seen the elephant.

3. (US) to be drunk.

1848

North-Carolinan (Fayetteville, NC) 18 Nov. 1/6: Drunk [...] see the elephant.

4. to be seduced, to be fooled.

1872

G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 411: Many of them, however, had ‘seen the elephant,’ and had paid their hundreds of dollars, in advance, as Mr. Verry Greene, of Boston, did, to get their neat little box of dry sawdust, only, in return.

5. (US gay, west.) to have sex for the first time or to be disappointed in a sexual encounter.

2022

(con. late 19C) J. Nevins ‘Western frontier gay slang’ on Twitter 2 Mar. 🌐 ‘see the elephant’ = among gay cowboys, the first time having sex or having disappointing sex.

(US) to show someone the sights, used esp. of town-dwellers thus regaling their ‘country cousins’.

1850

‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 144: I’m one o’ them softies, an’ Confidence is one o’ the hawks – a sort of doctor like, who goes round after fou-fou game, and bleeds ’em clean, jis’ by way of showin’ ’em the elephant!

(US Und.) a detective or police officer.

1929		Hostetter & Beesley It’s a Racket! 224: DUMMY—Detective; officer of the law. Other terms—‘Big Eyes,’ ‘Elephant Ears,’ ‘Round Heels.’.
1933		N. Algren ‘So Help Me’ in Texas Stories (1995) 26: I seen a new Chrysler [...] and in front of it a big elephant ears was standin’.
1936		H. Corey Farewell, Mr Gangster! 278: Elephant ears – a detective.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 65/2: Elephant ears. Any eavesdropper, especially a plainclothesman.

see bee’s knees n.

see bee’s knees n.

see cat’s meow n.

(US black) piano keys.

1953

L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 11: The cat that’s pulling the elephant teeth is a bonnet flipper and makes a gang of mad beats at any old time he can take his count for mugging.

1. heroin.

1996

M. Gossop Living with Drugs 144: Elephant was a mid-brown in colour and was the stronger of the two. Oddly enough, many addicts described Chinese heroin as stronger.

2. phencyclidine.

1972		Smith & Gay Heroin in Perspective 197: Angel Dust [...] in pill form called ‘Peace Pill,’ ‘hog,’ or ‘elephant’.
1978		Daily News 23 Feb. 5: Angel dust goes by dozens of street names [...] Peace pills, white powder, superjoint, busy bee, hog, elephant tranquilizer, crystal, and green tea are some of the more popular names.
1979		H. Feldman et al. Angel Dust 124: The large number of street names it has been accorded over the years: [...] elephant.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 337: elephant: PCP. [...] elephant tranquilizer: PCP.
1996		R. Rendell Keys to the Street 130: A job that was big enough to keep you in rocks or that elephant dope for the rest of your life?
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 8: Elephant — [...] PCP. [...] Elephant trank — PCP; Elephant tranquilizer — PCP.