Word.ws English Dictionary

build castles in the air

build castles in the air verb: 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.

build castles in the air: to have any desire, idea, or plan that is unlikely to be realized; to imagine visionary projects or...
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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, […]...
    • 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

build castles in the air meaning in Tamil and Punjabi

build castles in the air in Tamil

கற்பி

build castles in the air in Punjabi

to have any desire, idea, or plan unlikely to be realized
ਖਿਆਲੀ ਪੁਲਾਉ ਪਕਾਉਣਾ khiālī pulāu pakāuṇā

Forms of build castles in the air

third-person singular presentbuilds castles in the air
present participlebuilding castles in the air
past participlebuilt castles in the air
pastbuilt castles in the air
alternative formbuild air castles
past participle poetic (archaic)builded castles in the air
past poetic (archaic)builded castles in the air

Origin of build castles in the air

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.

Questions about build castles in the air

What does build castles in the air mean?
Build castles in the air means 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.
What is build castles in the air in Tamil?
Build castles in the air in Tamil is கற்பி. See Build castles in the air meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is build castles in the air?
Build castles in the air is a verb.
What is the past tense of build castles in the air?
The past tense of build castles in the air is built castles in the air.

Words near build castles in the air in the dictionary

  1. build a fire under
  2. build air castles
  3. build artifact
  4. build artifacts
  5. build bridges
  6. build castles in the air
  7. build character
  8. build down
  9. build in
  10. build into
  11. build on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: build castles in the air (page history and authors); build castles in the air (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-build castles in the air.ogg.

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