castle in the air

plural castles in the air

1. idiomaticA desire, idea, or plan that is unlikely to ever be realized; a visionary project or scheme; a daydream, an idle fancy, a near impossibility.First known use mid 16th c.

   We used to build castles in the air. We had big dreams. I'm not sure if you still have those dreams, but I still have dreams.

   2013 December 18, Kenneth Khulekani Khoza, Castles in the Air, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris, →ISBN, act I, scene i, page 21

   5 more examples

   Many times ſuch men when they come to themſelves, tell ſtrange things of Heauen and Hell, what viſions they haue ſeene; […] The like effects almost are to bee ſeene in ſuch as are awake: How many Chimæras, Anticks, golden mountaines, and Caſtles in the Aire doe they build vnto themſelves?

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Of the Force of Imagination”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 3, subsection 2, page 81

   Look you, Amanda, you may build castles in the air, "and fume, and fret, and grow thin and lean, and pale and ugly, if you please." But I tell you, no man worth having is true to his wife, or can be true to his wife, or ever was, or will be so.

   1696, John Vanbrugh, The Relapse; or, Virtue in Danger. […] (Bell’s British Theatre; XXVI), London: Printed for the proprietors, under the Direction of John Bell, […], published 1795, →OCLC, act III, scene ii, page 72

   Her unlimited devotion for "the family," readily induced the old lady to acquiesce in his proposal, though not without a gentle sigh over the ruins of a castle in the air, which was founded on the well-saved purse of Mistress Deborah Debbitch.

   1822, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 70

   She had a vivid imagination; […] and it is a fact, that while she was dressing for dinner, and after she had asked Amelia whether her brother was very rich, she had built for herself a most magnificent castle in the air, of which she was mistress, with a husband somewhere in the background (she had not seen him as yet, and his figure would not therefore be very distinct); […]

   1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Rebecca is in Presence of the Enemy”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page 18

   If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

   1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Conclusion”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 346

   Synonyms: air castle, castles in Spain, castle in the skies, eggs in moonshine, jam tomorrow, pie in the sky, pipe dream · Antonyms: terra firma, on solid ground