English
Etymology
From the fantasies experienced when smoking an opium pipe.
Pronunciation
Noun
pipe dream (plural pipe dreams)
- (idiomatic) A plan, desire, or idea that will not likely work; a near impossibility.
I think that his plan to become a professional athlete is a pipe dream and that he should stay in school.
- Synonyms: castle in the air, pie in the sky
Translations
near impossibility
- Afrikaans: lugkasteel (air castle), wensdroom (wishful dream)
- Armenian: անիրականալի երազանք (anirakanali erazankʻ), ցնորք (hy) (cʻnorkʻ)
- Bashkir: буш (buş) хыял (xıyal)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 妄想 (zh) (wàngxiǎng)
- Czech: vzdušné zámky m pl (air castles)
- Danish: ønskedrøm c, luftkastel n
- Dutch: luchtkasteel (nl) n (air castle), wensdroom (nl) m
- Esperanto: aerkastelo, ĥimero
- Finnish: pilvilinna (fi)
- French: rêve chimérique m, chimère (fr) f
- German: Luftschloss (de) n (air castle), Schnapsidee (de) n (booze idea), Wunschtraum m
- (deprecated template usage)
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- Greek: ὀνειροπόληση f (oneiropólēsē), ονειροφαντασία (el) f (oneirofantasía)
- Hebrew: (formally) חלומות באספמיה (he) m pl (ḥalomót be aspámya), (formally) מגדלים פורחים באוויר m pl (migdalím porḥím ba avír)
- Hungarian: légvár (hu)
- Japanese: 夢物語 (ゆめものがたり, yumemonogatari)
- Maori: waitara
- Norwegian: luftslott (no) n, ønskedrøm m
- Polish: mrzonka (pl) f
- Portuguese: quimera (pt) f
- Russian: несбы́точная мечта́ f (nesbýtočnaja mečtá) (unrealizable dream), возду́шные за́мки m pl (vozdúšnyje zámki) (air castles)
- Spanish: sueño guajiro (es), castillo en el aire m
- Swedish: luftslott (sv) n, önskedröm (sv)
- Turkish: boş hayal (tr), hülya (tr)
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