Meanings
- pluralplural onlySynonym of castle in the air.
The show must go on / And time slipped away / Before you could build any castles in Spain / The chance had gone by
1977, “Day After Day (The Show Must Go On)”, in I Robot, performed by The Alan Parsons Project1 more example
Glittering castles in Spain were shaping themselves out of the mists and rainbows of her lively fancy; adventures wonderful and enthralling were happening to her in cloudland—adventures that always turned out triumphantly and never involved her in scrapes like those of actual life.
1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, chapter XXX, in Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLCSynonyms: castle in the air
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of castle in the air.
Origin
- Frenchchâteaux en Espagne
- Englishcastles in Spain
Calque of French châteaux en Espagne, recorded in the Roman de la Rose in the 13th century and translated into English around 1365.
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
castles in Spain. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/castles%20in%20Spain
“castles in Spain.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/castles%20in%20Spain. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “castles in Spain,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/castles%20in%20Spain.
Source: castles in Spain on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.