pink elephants

plural noun

1. any of various visual hallucinations sometimes experienced as a withdrawal symptom after sustained alcoholic drinking.

pink elephants

plural noun

1. a facetious name applied to hallucinations caused by drunkenness

Word History and Origins

Origin of pink elephants¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Their swaddles are in prints of pink elephants or flowers.

From Seattle Times

The last of Seattle’s iconic pink elephants could soon be leaving its perch.

From Seattle Times

Even when black holes crashed together and merged, the singularities—or pink elephants—would remain hidden by their event horizons, preventing their existence from throwing the outer cosmos into chaos.

From Scientific American

There’s the “pink elephants on parade” segment, where Dumbo gets drunk and hallucinates a menacing Technicolor human made of 17 disembodied elephant heads.

From The Guardian

After all, if I tell you not to think about a pink elephant, you're likely to think even more about pink elephants.

From Scientific American