An enormous, conspicuous problem or controversial topic that everyone is aware of but deliberately avoids discussing.
"The company’s looming tax audit was the elephant in the room throughout the shareholders meeting."
"Nobody wanted to mention his sudden demotion, but it remained the elephant in the room."
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Employs animal behavior or imagery ('elephant') to express figurative human conduct.
First cited in Mark Twain’s satirical writing and formalized in 1959 by The New York Times describing financing issues so colossal nobody would acknowledge them.
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