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• pipe dream
  pipe dream

  noun

  any fantastic notion, hope, or story.
• pipe-dream
  pipe-dream

  verb (used without object)

  to indulge in pipe dreams; fantasize.

pipe dream

¹ American  

noun

1. any fantastic notion, hope, or story.

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

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pipe-dream ² American  

[pahyp-dreem] / ˈpaɪpˌdrim /

verb (used without object)

pipe-dreamed, pipe-dreamt, pipe-dreaming

1. to indulge in pipe dreams; fantasize.

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pipe dream British  

noun

1. a fanciful or impossible plan or hope

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pipe dream Idioms  

1. 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.

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Etymology

Origin of pipe dream

An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Vozinha played 80 times as Cape Verde chased the pipe dream of someday reaching the World Cup.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 15, 2026

Ma Naw Phaw even met BFW's founder Min Min Soe Shwe who assured her that what might seem like a pipe dream was, in fact, within reach.

From BBC • Jun. 12, 2026

“It was a pipe dream for so long … the notion that we would get a subway to the Westside,” Yaroslavsky said.

From Los Angeles Times • May 7, 2026

The oil-futures market thinks oil will fall from $98 a barrel today to $80 by September and $75 by Christmas — but that may be a pipe dream.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 11, 2026

That old image of myself as a hero, as a man of conscience and courage, all that was just a threadbare pipe dream.

From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

Related Words

• daydream
• wishful thinking