elephantine

5 definitions found

elephantine - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Elephantine \El`e*phan"tine\, a. [L. elephantinus of ivory, Gr.
     ?: cf. F. ['e]l['e]phantin.]
     Pertaining to the elephant, or resembling an elephant
     (commonly, in size); hence, huge; immense; heavy; as, of
     elephantine proportions; an elephantine step or tread.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Elephantine epoch (Geol.), the epoch distinguished by the
        existence of large pachyderms. --Mantell.
  
     Elephantine tortoise (Zo["o]l.), a huge land tortoise;
        esp., Testudo elephantina, from islands in the Indian
        Ocean; and T. elephantopus, from the Galapagos Islands.
        Elephantoid

elephantine - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  elephantine
      adj 1: of great mass; huge and bulky; "a jumbo jet"; "jumbo
             shrimp" [syn: elephantine, gargantuan, giant,
             jumbo]

elephantine - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  elephantine
  
     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.
  
     [Jargon File]
  

elephantine - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  elephantine
   adj.
  
     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.
  

elephantine - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  118 Moby Thesaurus words for "elephantine":
     Atlantean, Brobdingnagian, Cyclopean, Gargantuan, Herculean,
     Homeric, Latinate, abysmal, arid, astronomic, awkward, barren,
     blah, blank, bloodless, bombastic, bulky, characterless, clumsy,
     cold, colorless, colossal, cramped, cumbersome, cumbrous, dead,
     dismal, draggy, drearisome, dreary, dry, dryasdust, dull, dusty,
     effete, elephantlike, empty, enormous, epic, etiolated, fade, flat,
     forced, formal, gargantuan, giant, giantlike, gigantic, graceless,
     guinde, halting, heavy, heavy-handed, heroic, ho-hum, hollow, huge,
     hulking, hulky, immense, inane, inexcitable, infinite, inkhorn,
     insipid, jejune, jumbo, labored, leaden, lifeless, low-spirited,
     lubberly, lumbering, lumpish, lumpy, maladroit, mammoth, massive,
     massy, mighty, monster, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, pale,
     pallid, pedestrian, plodding, pointless, poky, pompous, ponderous,
     prodigious, profound, sesquipedalian, slow, solemn, spiritless,
     sterile, stiff, stilted, stodgy, stuffy, stupendous, superficial,
     tasteless, tedious, titanic, towering, tremendous, turgid,
     ungraceful, uninspired, unlively, unwieldy, vapid, vast, wooden