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Synonyms

castles in the air

Cultural  

  1. Extravagant hopes and plans that will never be carried out: “I told him he should stop building castles in the air and train for a sensible profession.”

castles in the air Idioms  

  1. Also, castles in Spain. Dreams about future success, as in Musing about the bestseller list, she was apt to build castles in the air. The first term dates from the late 1500s. The variant, castles in Spain (or chateaux en Espagne), was recorded in the Roman de la Rose in the 13th century and translated into English about 1365.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

All entrepreneurs making pitches to venture capital funds are inclined to promise castles in the air and riches beyond the dreams of Croesus, or they won’t be invited through the door.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 3, 2022

They're giddy at having two women pledge to make their sundry castles in the air become real.

From Salon • Mar. 26, 2021

“You can be building castles in the air that have no reference to reality,” Mr. Kesler added.

From New York Times • Aug. 5, 2017

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”

From Washington Post • Jul. 12, 2017

Sometimes they were rain clouds, heavy and dark, and sometimes airy tufts of white that cast delicate shade and twisted into shapes like hunting ravids or castles in the air.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.