moon-beam

Noun

moonbeam (plural moonbeams)

1. A ray or shaft of moonlight.
   • Holonym: moonlight
2. Any of various Australasian lycaenid butterflies of the genus Philiris.
3. Someone who tends to be dreamy and prone to unrealistic romanticism.
   • While you're responding to the dithering confusing Lynda is causing in the bus depot, you're absorbing the emotions between mother and child. Darcy is often very grownup around her mother, as if she knew that Lynda is a bit of a moonbeam and needs looking after.1980, Pauline Kael, The New Yorker
4. A goal or aspiration that appears attractive but is ultimately insubstantial.
   • Therefore it has always seemed clear to me, and that has been the decision of the Senate for many years before when we have had these questions stoutly contested, that where the direction (which is legislation, of course, just as the appropriation is) is confined to the appropriation, to the...1882, United States. Congress, Congressional Record, page 3490