pipe dream

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n.
A fantastic notion or vain hope.

[From the fantasies induced by smoking a pipe of opium.]


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noun

    A fantastic, impracticable plan or desire: bubble, castle in the air, chimera, dream, fantasy, illusion, rainbow. See real/imaginary.

A fantastic notion or vain hope, as in I'd love to have one home in the mountains and another at the seashore, but that's just a pipe dream. Alluding to the fantasies induced by smoking an opium pipe, this term has been used more loosely since the late 1800s.

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'pipe dream'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to pipe dream, see:

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Pipe dream may refer to:

Music

Other media

Other

  • Pipe Mania, a 1989 computer puzzle game also known as Pipe Dream
  • PipeDream, a built-in applications package for the Sinclair Cambridge Z88 ultra portable handheld computer

Translations:

Pipe-dream

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - ønskedrøm, luftkastel

Français (French)
n. - chimère

Deutsch (German)
n. - Chimäre

Español (Spanish)
n. - fantasía, esperanza exagerada

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
白日梦, 幻想

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
白日夢, 幻想

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 허무한 공상, 걷잡을 수 없는 생각

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תקווה או תוכנית דמיונית ובלתי-ניתנת להשגה‬


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Mentioned in

pipe (Idiom)
dream (Idiom)
flight of fancy (Idiom)
Pipe Dream (Album by Jimi Hendrix)
Alvin Colt (American Theater)