Liliputin-4580

Pipe bombs and pipe dreams shouldn't be mixed ... "
Theodore John Kaczynski

Liliputins. What, the heck, is this?
http://stihi.ru/2021/11/24/7101

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pipe dream

A vain dream that will never happen, given the harsh reality of life.

World peace and human equality are examples of pipe dreams because humans are more naturally inclined to kill off their competition than to cooperate.

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pipe-dream
 
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Word Origin

See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com

verb (used without object), pipe-dreamed or pipe-dreamt, pipe-dreaming.


1. to indulge in pipe dreams; fantasize.

pipe dream

noun

1. any fantastic notion, hope, or story:
Her plans for a movie career are just a pipe dream.

Origin of pipe dream Expand


1895-1900
1895-1900, Americanism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2016.
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Examples from the Web for pipe-dream Expand


Historical Examples

"Go ahead and have a good time with your pipe-dream, Abe," Morris said.


Potash and Perlmutter Settle Things

Montague Glass


"Sounds like a pipe-dream," commented Matt, when his chum had finished.


Motor Matt's Triumph, or, Three Speeds Forward

Stanley R. Matthews


The notion that the trombonist had given a signal he derided as an "Old Sleuth pipe-dream."


Average Jones

Samuel Hopkins Adams


But how among countless suggestions is a "cause" to know the difference between a true invention and a pipe-dream ?


A Preface to Politics

Walter Lippmann


I have been trying to believe that what he told me isn't altogether a pipe-dream, but it sounds mightily like one.


The Taming of Red Butte Western

Francis Lynde

British Dictionary definitions for pipe-dream Expand

pipe dream

noun

1. a fanciful or impossible plan or hope

Word Origin


alluding to dreams produced by smoking an opium pipe

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Word Origin and History for pipe-dream Expand

pipe dream
 

1870; the sort of improbable fantasy one has while smoking opium; from pipe (n.1) + dream (n.). Old English pipdream meant "piping."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang definitions & phrases for pipe-dream Expand



pipe dream

noun phrase

An improbable and visionary hope, ideal, scheme, etc, such as an opium smoker might have : He has some ambitious plans, mostly pipe dreams  (1896+)

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.
Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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Idioms and Phrases with pipe-dream Expand


pipe dream


A fantastic notion or vain hope, as in I'd love to have one home in the mountains and another at the seashore, but that's just a pipe dream. Alluding to the fantasies induced by smoking an opium pipe, this term has been used more loosely since the late 1800s.


The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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