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Showing results for pipe dream. Search instead for pipe-dreamed.
Synonyms

pipe dream

1 American  

noun

  1. any fantastic notion, hope, or story.

    Her plans for a movie career are just a pipe dream.
pipe-dream 2 American  
[pahyp-dreem] / ˈpaɪpˌdrim /

verb (used without object)

pipe-dreamed, pipe-dreamt, pipe-dreaming

  1. to indulge in pipe dreams; fantasize.

pipe dream British  

noun

  1. a fanciful or impossible plan or hope

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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.

Etymology

Origin of pipe dream

An Americanism dating back to 1895–1900

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.

When Koy was moving up the comedy ranks under his real name Joseph Glenn Herbert, the thought of calling himself a comedian felt like a pipe dream.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2026

Yes, you could argue that the inconsistency is on the field, but it is a pipe dream to expect overall consistency when every situation is slightly different.

From BBC • Mar. 1, 2026

Not long before, “talkies” had been mostly a pipe dream.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 2026

Perfect anonymity online is still a pipe dream, but a good VPN gets you pretty close.

From Salon • Feb. 11, 2026

They seem to have no idea what a pipe dream this is.

From "The Running Dream" by Wendelin Van Draanen

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.