Definition
To have any desire, idea, or plan that is unlikely to be realized; to imagine visionary projects or schemes; to have an idle fancy or a pipe dream; to daydream.
Origins
The first term dates from the late 1500s. A variant, castles in Spain (or châteaux en Espagne), was recorded in the Roman de la Rose in the 13th century and translated into English around 1365.
In Context
- "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."
- "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."
- "Labor and you build castles in the air. Vote Conservative and you can live in them."