pipe dream

noun

Definition of pipe dreamnext
as in dream
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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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pipe dream According to McBride, Cooper’s casting as the brood’s OG ecclesiastic began as a pipe dream. — Michael Ausiello, TVLine, 9 Mar. 2025 Moore’s win at the 2025 Globes seemed to cinch the narrative: A Best Actress Oscar had gradually gone from pipe dream to the most likely outcome. — Joe Reid, Vulture, 3 Mar. 2025 Believers view deep geothermal as a climate savior; skeptics view it as a technically infeasible pipe dream. — Brent Crane, The New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2025 The most ambitious versions of such an effort are for now a pipe dream. — Emma Ashford, Foreign Affairs, 18 Feb. 2025 See All Example Sentences for pipe dream
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pipe dream
  1. dream
  2. illusion
  3. daydream
  4. fantasy
  5. vision
Noun
  • Getting a glimpse into Garten’s life story is fascinating, and her cheerful demeanor and can-do attitude will galvanize you to chase your dreams.
    — Meg Zukin, Los Angeles Times, 22 Mar. 2025
  • Still shopping around for the house of your dreams?
    — Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 22 Mar. 2025
Definition of dream
Noun
  • On far too many occasions, Watson chose deceit over candor, grasping for the illusion of business success and personal acclaim at any cost.
    — Peter White, Deadline, 28 Mar. 2025
  • Yet there are filmmakers who fall prey to the illusion too.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 28 Mar. 2025
Definition of illusion
Noun
  • The entries are a mixture of sense memory, adolescent embarrassment, nostalgic fashions and foods, daydreams, and anything else that falls through the sieve of Brainard’s disarmingly casual syntax.
    — David S. Wallace, The New Yorker, 19 Mar. 2025
  • Panda Bear: Sinister Grift [Domino] Noah Lennox brings the sunshine—and, for the first time on a Panda Bear album, nearly all of his Animal Collective bandmates—on Sinister Grift, an album of spongy psychedelic daydreams and melodies that yearn and enchant.
    — Madison Bloom, Pitchfork, 28 Feb. 2025
Definition of daydream
Noun
  • In 1958, a provincial party chairman weighed in on the term fantasy in a roundtable essay that was published in Sae sedae.
    — H.M.A. Leow, JSTOR Daily, 22 Mar. 2025
  • Yet the notion of a business jet operating at Mach 5 remained a sci-fi fantasy.
    — Michael Verdon, Robb Report, 22 Mar. 2025
Definition of fantasy
Noun
  • He is haunted by visions and night terrors involving Anne and his late mentor, Cardinal Wolsey (Jonathan Pryce), who was executed by King Henry’s orders in the first season.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 23 Mar. 2025
  • Detective Lee Yeon-hui (played by Shin Hyun-been of Hospital Playlist and Reborn Rich) is assigned to the case and also chases after the suspect, all the while being tormented by visions of her dead sister.
    — Regina Kim, Forbes, 23 Mar. 2025
Definition of vision

Browse Nearby Words

pipe down
pipe dream
pipe dreams
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Pipe dream.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pipe%20dream. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.

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