Word.ws English Dictionary

builds castles in the air

builds castles in the air is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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, […]...

Questions about builds castles in the air

What is builds castles in the air the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Builds castles in the air is the third-person singular simple present indicative of build castles in the air.

Words near builds castles in the air in the dictionary

  1. builds
  2. builds a better mousetrap
  3. builds a case
  4. builds air castles
  5. builds bridges
  6. builds castles in the air
  7. builds character
  8. builds down
  9. builds in
  10. builds into
  11. builds on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: builds castles in the air (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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