flight of fancy

plural flights of fancy

1. idiomaticAn idea, narrative, suggestion, etc., which is extremely imaginative and which appears to be entirely unrealistic, untrue, or impractical; thinking which is very speculative.

   Who might not, by a very easy flight of fancy, have believed that everything about him took this haunted tone, and that he lived on haunted ground?

   1848, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain

   3 more examples

   And, whereas the mind of Man, when he gives the Spur and Bridle to his Thoughts, doth never ſtop, but naturally ſallies out into both extreams of High and Low, of Good and Evil, his first Flight of Fancy commonly tranſports Him to Idea's of what is moſt Perfect, finiſhed, and exalted; [...]

   1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section VIII”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC, page 154

   No German troops were mobilized along Canada's border last week, no Canadian cities had been bombed, and only by the remotest flight of fancy could alarmists see the Dominion as a battleground.

   1939 November 20, “Canadian Secrecy”, in Time

   Aguilar-Millan et al. published an ambitious flight of fancy which explored the “post-scarcity world” of 2050 in light of technical advancements which they argue will decrease costs to providers until almost everything becomes free to the end user.

   2016, Paul Gooding, Historic Newspapers in the Digital Age, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN, page 183

   Synonyms: daydream, reverie