subs. (American thieves’).—A wealthy victim. Cf., TO SEE THE ELEPHANT.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
TO SEE THE ELEPHANT, verb. phr. (American).—1. To see the world; to ‘go out for wool and come home shorn’; by implication, to ‘go on the loose.’ Sometimes, TO SEE THE KING.
b. 1533, d. 1592. MONTAIGNE, Arrien, History of India, ch. 17. Aux Indes Orientales la chasteté y estant en singulière recommandation, l’usage pourtant souffroit qu’une femme mariée se peust abandonner à qui luy presentoit un ÉLÉPHANT, et cela avecques quelque gloire d’avoir esté estimée à si hault prix.
1809. G. W. KENDALL, Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition, i., p. 109. When a man is disappointed in anything he undertakes, when he has seen enough, when he gets sick and tired of any job he may have set himself about, he has “SEEN THE ELEPHANT.”
1870. L. OLIPHANT, Piccadilly, pt. ii., p. 39. So had Mr. Wog, who went up to town TO SEE what he called THE ELEPHANT,—an American expression, signifying ‘to gain experience of the world.’
1873. BESANT and RICE, Ready-Money Mortiboy, ch. xxxiv. Just like the Americans, when they go to see a great sight, say they are going to SEE THE ELEPHANT.
1888. Boston Globe, 4 March. It was in a Hanover Street dispensary, where the tillers of the soil love to congregate, when they are down to Bosting, INSPECTING THE Athenian white ELEPHANT.
1889. Puck’s Library, April, p. 25. Forepaugh says that elephants have a natural liking for whiskey. We have often wondered, when a man went out to SEE THE ELEPHANT, why he always brought back such a strange odour with him. This seems to explain it.
2. (common).—To be seduced; Fr., avoir vu le loup. For synonyms, see LEG.
