elephants' graveyard

elephants' graveyard (plural elephants' graveyards)

1. A place where, according to legend, older elephants instinctively direct themselves when they reach a certain age, in order to die alone.
2. (by extension) A place where lost objects or people end up, and from which there is no escape.
   • 1984, John F. Williams, Career Preparation and Opportunities in International Law, page 94:

     John F. Williams, Paul Clifford. low rate, on the other hand may mean that the legal department is an "elephants' graveyard," from which no escape is possible.

   • 1997, Carole Nelson Douglas, Cat with an Emerald Eye: A Midnight Louie Mystery, page 56:

     I actually wonder for a moment if my kind has an elephants' graveyard where those of us free to do so withdraw as our lives dwindle down to the ninth one's final moments.

   • 2012, Katerine Swift, The Morville Year:

     I suppose every garden has one: an elephants' graveyard of discarded labels.