white elephant


Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
white elephant
noun a possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of.
– origin from the story that the kings of Siam gave such animals as a gift to courtiers they disliked, in order to ruin the recipient by the great expense incurred in maintaining the animal.
'white elephant' also found in these Oxford entries:

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