elephant ear

noun

US

: a thick, irregular disk of fried dough usually served with a topping (such as powdered sugar)

An Elephant Ear is an album-sized expanse of oil-fried dough slathered with butter and cinnamon-sugar, sort of cinnamon toast from hell, really and truly shaped like an ear, surprisingly yummy, it turns out, but sickly soft, the texture of adipose flesh, and undeniably elephant-sized …

—David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, 1997

Word History

First Known Use

1948, in the meaning defined above

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