Part of the elephant's foot (4)
I believe the answer is:
heel
'foot?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'part of the elephants' is the wordplay.
'part of' indicates a hidden word.
'HEEL' is hidden within 'the elephants'.
(Other definitions for heel that I've seen before include "Hindu loincloth" , "Command to a trained dog" , "American rotter or shoe part" , "that may be Cuban" , "Lean - back of foot" .)