castle in the air

English

Noun

castle in the air (plural castles in the air)

1. (idiomatic) A visionary project or scheme; a day-dream; an idle fancy; a pipe dream; any plan, desire, or idea that is unlikely to be ever realized; a near impossibility.

Usage notes

• Completing the metaphor, one is said to build a castle in the air.

Synonyms

• castle in the skies
• castle in Spain

Derived terms

• build castles in the air

Translations

idea that is unlikely to be ever realized

• Albanian: kështjella në erë (sq), ëndrra në diell (sq)
• Catalan: castells en l'aire (ca) m pl
• Danish: luftkastel (da) n
• Dutch: luchtkasteel (nl) n
• French: châteaux en Espagne (fr) m pl
• German: Luftschloss (de) n

• Hebrew: מגדלים באוויר (he) (Migdalim BaAvir)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: куле у зраку (sh) f pl

  Roman: kule u zraku (sh) f pl

• Spanish: castillos en el aire (es) m pl, castillos de naipes (es) m pl
• Swedish: luftslott (sv) n

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, 1989