pipe-dream

¹

[pahyp-dreem]

verb (used without object)

pipe-dreamed, pipe-dreamt, pipe-dreaming. 

1. to indulge in pipe dreams; fantasize.

pipe dream

²

noun

1. any fantastic notion, hope, or story.

   Her plans for a movie career are just a pipe dream.

pipe dream

noun

1. a fanciful or impossible plan or hope

Word History and Origins

Origin of pipe-dream¹

An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900

Word History and Origins

Origin of pipe-dream¹

alluding to dreams produced by smoking an opium pipe

Idioms and Phrases

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.

Example Sentences

This victim was said to have been sold a "pipe dream" of how she could make "lots of money" from selling her body.

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Against their great rivals in Indore, they had spells where they competed - again, something that was nothing more than a pipe dream at the beginning of the year.

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These would be excellent candidates for a momentum fund, or a venture fund trying to sort spicy growers from pipe dreams.

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But when Mr. Netanyahu then rejected that, insisting on a deal to return all the hostages at once and disarm Hamas, it was dismissed as a pipe dream—including by the Israeli defense establishment.

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"If this is acceptable now, then it's not surprising that unionists will never want to be part of the pipe dream that is a united Ireland."

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Related Words

• daydream 
• wishful thinking