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 the answer is hidden within the clue.
'HEEL' is hidden in the letters of '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" .)