pipe-dream
UK/ˈpaɪpdriːm/US/ˈpaɪpˌdrim/
pipe-dream verb: to have a desire or idea which is unlikely to materialize, or to imagine a plan which is unlikely to work; to dream of a near impossibility.
Verb
pipe-dream (third-person singular simple present pipe-dreams, present participle pipe-dreaming, simple past and past participle pipe-dreamed)
- To have a desire or idea which is unlikely to materialize, or to imagine a plan which is unlikely to work; to dream of a near impossibility.
- Love is life sublime, / Ev'ry moment that I'm / Only wasting my time / Pipe dreaming of you, / Pipe dreaming of you, […]1946 April, Cole Porter, “Around the World in Eighty Days [Pipe Dreaming]”, in Robert Kimball, editor, The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, New York, N.Y.: Da Capo Press, published 1992, →ISBN, page...
Forms of pipe-dream
| third-person singular present | pipe-dreams |
|---|---|
| present participle | pipe-dreaming |
| past participle | pipe-dreamed |
| past | pipe-dreamed |
Origin of pipe-dream
From pipe dream (noun).
Questions about pipe-dream
- What does pipe-dream mean?
- Pipe-dream means to have a desire or idea which is unlikely to materialize, or to imagine a plan which is unlikely to work; to dream of a near impossibility.
- What part of speech is pipe-dream?
- Pipe-dream is a verb.
- How do you pronounce pipe-dream?
- Pipe-dream is pronounced /ˈpaɪpdriːm/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of pipe-dream?
- The past tense of pipe-dream is pipe-dreamed.
Words near pipe-dream in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pipe-dream (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-pipe dream.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pipe-dream.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pipe-dream. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.