ALL meanings of elephantine
- adjective elephantine like an elephant 1
- adjective elephantine huge 1
- noun elephantine Of, resembling, or characteristic of an elephant or elephants, especially in being large, clumsy, or awkward. 1
- noun Definition of elephantine in Technology Used of programs or systems that are both conspicuous hogs (owing perhaps to poor design founded on brute force and ignorance) and exceedingly hairy in source form. An elephantine program may be functional and even friendly, but (as in the old joke about being in bed with an elephant) it's tough to have around all the same (and, like a pachyderm, difficult to maintain). In extreme cases, hackers have been known to make trumpeting sounds or perform expressive proboscatory mime at the mention of the offending program. Usage: semi-humorous. Compare "has the elephant nature" and the somewhat more pejorative monstrosity. See also second-system effect and baroque. 1
- adjective elephantine Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of elephants. 0
- adjective elephantine Very large. 0
- adjective elephantine If you describe something as elephantine, you mean that you think it is large and clumsy. 0
- adjective elephantine denoting, relating to, or characteristic of an elephant or elephants 0
- adjective elephantine huge, clumsy, or ponderous 0
- noun elephantine small island in the Nile, opposite Aswan: site of ancient ruins 0
- adjective elephantine of an elephant or elephants 0
- adjective elephantine like an elephant in size or gait; huge, heavy, slow, clumsy, ungainly, etc. 0