Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A fantastic notion or vain hope.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A plan, desire, or idea that will not likely work; a near impossibility.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a fantastic but vain hope (from fantasies induced by the opium pipe)
Etymologies
From the fantasies induced by smoking a pipe of opium.
(American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)From the fantasies experienced when smoking an opium pipe. (Wiktionary)
Examples
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They were having this freewheeling political discussion and I was looking around thinking, I despise everybody in this room, as Israelite spoke feverishly about their pipe dream to recruit retired general Norman Schwarzkopf to run as a Republican for the Senate in Florida.
quotato commented on the word pipe dream
The only pipe dream that ever worked is when a plumber got a job.
December 3, 2008