pipe dream
noun
1 pipe dream
A fantastic but vain hope (from fantasies induced by the opium pipe):
— I have this pipe dream about being emperor of the universe.
synonym: dream.
Roget 515:
imagination;
originality;
invention;
fancy;
inspiration;
verve.
warm imagination,
heated imagination,
excited imagination,
sanguine imagination,
ardent imagination,
fiery imagination,
boiling imagination,
wild imagination,
bold imagination,
daring imagination,
playful imagination,
lively imagination,
fertile imagination,
fancy.
mind's eye;"
such stuff as dreams are made of"
[Tempest].
ideality,
idealism;
romanticism,
utopianism,
castle-building.
dreaming;
phrensy†,
frenzy;
ecstasy,
extasy†;
calenture
etc.
(delirium)
503†;
reverie,
trance;
day dream,
golden dream;
somnambulism.
conception,
Vorstellung [G.],
excogitation†,
a fine frenzy;"
cloudland†,
dreamland;
flight of fancy,
fumes of fancy;
thick coming fancies"
[Macbeth];
creation of the brain,
coinage of the brain;
imagery.
conceit,
maggot,
figment,
myth,
dream,
vision,
shadow,
chimera;
phantasm,
phantasy;
fantasy,
fancy;
whim,
whimsey†,
whimsy;
vagary,
rhapsody,
romance,
gest†,
geste†,
extravaganza;
air drawn dagger,
bugbear,
nightmare.
flying Dutchman,
great sea serpent,
man in the moon,
castle in the air,
pipe dream,
pie-in-the-sky,
chateau en Espagne [Fr.];
Utopia,
Atlantis†,
happy valley,
millennium,
fairyland;
land of Prester John,
kindgom of Micomicon;
work of fiction
etc.
(novel)
594;
Arabian nights†;
le pot au lait [Fr.];
dream of Alnashar
etc.
(hope)
858†.
illusion
etc.
(error)
495;
phantom
etc.
(fallacy of vision)
443;
Fata Morgana
etc.
(ignis fatuus) [Lat.]
423;
vapor
etc.
(cloud)
353;
stretch of the imagination
etc.
(exaggeration)
549;
mythogenesis†.
idealist,
romanticist,
visionary;
mopus†;
romancer,
dreamer;
somnambulist;
rhapsodist
etc.
(fanatic)
504;
castle-buildier,
fanciful projector.
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Dutch: luchtkasteel, toekomstdroom
Polish: miraż, mrzonka, złudzenie, utopia
Moby thesaurus: Walter Mitty, absence of mind, absentmindedness, absorption, abstractedness, abstraction, airy hope, airy nothing, autism, bad dream, be absent, bemusement, brown study, bubble, castle-building, chimera, daydream, daydreamer, daydreaming, deception, deluded belief, delusion, depth of thought, dereism, divagate, dream, dream of, dream vision, dreaming, dreamland, dreamworld, engrossment, false belief, fantasy, fantasying, fit of abstraction, freak out, go woolgathering, golden dream, ignis fatuus, illusion, incubus, misbelief, misconception, moon, mooning, moonraking, muse, musefulness, musing, muted ecstasy, nightmare, pipe-dreaming, preoccupation, quixotic ideal, reverie, self-deceit, self-deception, self-delusion, stargaze, stargazing, stray, study, trance, trick, trip, unreal hope, utopia, vapor, vision, wander, woolgathering, wrong impression ... show more.
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