Word.ws English Dictionary

build air castles

build air castles is the alternative form of build castles in the air.

Meaning of build castles in the air

Verb

build castles in the air (third-person singular simple present builds castles in the air, present participle building castles in the air, simple past and past participle built castles in the air or (archaic or poetic) builded castles in the air)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) 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.
    • 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. […]”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), London: Printed for the proprietors, under the Direction of John Bell, […]...

Forms of build air castles

third-person singular presentbuilds air castles
present participlebuilding air castles
past participlebuilt air castles
pastbuilt air castles

Questions about build air castles

What is build air castles the alternative form of?
Build air castles is the alternative form of build castles in the air.

Words near build air castles in the dictionary

  1. build a better mousetrap
  2. build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door
  3. build a bridge and get over it
  4. build a case
  5. build a fire under
  6. build air castles
  7. build artifact
  8. build artifacts
  9. build bridges
  10. build castles in the air
  11. build character

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: build air castles (page history and authors); build castles in the air (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “build air castles.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/build_air_castles. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.