pipe dream

pipe dream

noun

Definition of PIPE DREAM

: an illusory or fantastic plan, hope, or story

Examples of PIPE DREAM

1. His plan for starting his own business was just a pipe dream.
2. <opening our own restaurant has long been a pipe dream>

Origin of PIPE DREAM

from the fantasies brought about by the smoking of opium

First Known Use: 1896

Related to PIPE DREAM

Synonyms: chimera, conceit, daydream, delusion, dream, fancy, figment, hallucination, illusion, nonentity, phantasm (also fantasm), fantasy, unreality, vision

Related Words: ignis fatuus, mirage, will-o'-the-wisp; brainchild, idea; concoction, fable, fabrication, fiction, invention; envisaging, imaging, visualization; cloud-cuckoo-land, cloudland, Shangri-la, utopia; daymare, nightmare

Near Antonyms: actuality, fact, reality

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Rhymes with PIPE DREAM

abeam, agleam, airstream, berseem, beseem, bireme, blaspheme, bloodstream, centime, coal seam, cold cream, crossbeam, daydream, downstream, dream team, drill team, egg cream, esteem, extreme, French seam, grapheme, Gulf Stream, hakim, headstream, high beam, hornbeam, I beam, ice cream, inseam, jet stream, kilim, lexeme, live steam, low beam, mainstream, midstream, millime, millstream, moonbeam, morpheme, onstream, phoneme, redeem, regime, rhyme scheme, sealed-beam, sememe, sidestream, slipstream, sour cream, sunbeam, supreme, tag team, Tarim, third-stream, toneme, trireme, unseam, upstream, warp beam, wet dream