as in dreams
a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality
opening our own restaurant has long been a pipe dream
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Recent Examples of pipe dreams
The stalker pipe dreams need to stop here.
—
Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
The idea that renewables alone can power the American economy is nonsense given the current technology, green pipe dreams notwithstanding.
—Editorial, Boston Herald, 8 Sep. 2025
Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
The idea that renewables alone can power the American economy is nonsense given the current technology, green pipe dreams notwithstanding.
—Editorial, Boston Herald, 8 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pipe dreams
Noun
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OpenAI and Amazon announced Monday that the former will pay the latter $38 billion over seven years for computing capacity to fuel its AI dreams.—
Andrew Nusca,
Fortune,
4 Nov. 2025
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Perhaps, curled inside the turbulent virginal atmosphere, Helm dreams of being a storm, has a prophetic vision of destruction, feels a natural calling.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Many immigrant novels contain similar scenes, in which hapless characters embrace improbable visions of America, only to be chastened upon arrival.—
Tope Folarin,
The Atlantic,
8 Nov. 2025
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Microsoft President Brad Smith speaks at a press conference at the Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia about future visions for the development and application of artificial intelligence in education in NRW in Berlin on June 4, 2025.—
Jordan Novet,
CNBC,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
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To stop this quarterback, Mizzou can’t get tricked by his illusions.—
Chase Gemes,
Kansas City Star,
24 Oct. 2025
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What illusions have been too sweet to let go of?—
Dossé-Via Trenou,
Refinery29,
19 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Luke, however, didn’t mind sharing his sometimes pie-in-the-sky fantasies and hopes with others.—
Marissa R. Moss,
Rolling Stone,
6 Nov. 2025
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Chartering a speedboat, we were whisked into the bay, a spellbinding expanse of calm, amniotic water dotted with more than 50 tiny islands and pristine beaches that called to mind castaway fantasies.—
David Amsden,
Travel + Leisure,
5 Nov. 2025
Noun
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But for business and organizational leaders, this theme doesn’t need to be the stuff of daydreams.—
Jed Brewer,
Rolling Stone,
4 Nov. 2025
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In pieces on patriotism as a kind of madness, on the long history of Polish and Russian colonizations and cultural appropriations of Ukraine, on the ways communities fantasize and share their daydreams, and others, Janion creates wormholes between past and present.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pipe dreams.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pipe%20dreams. Accessed 10 Nov. 2025.
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