pipe dream

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Even if this proves to be the exception, a near-term reversion to prewar oil prices sounds like a pipe dream.

From Barron's • Apr. 6, 2026

When Koy was moving up the comedy ranks under his real name Joseph Glenn Herbert, the thought of calling himself a comedian felt like a pipe dream.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2026

Not long before, “talkies” had been mostly a pipe dream.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 2026

Purity is a pipe dream, though, because the politics of quitting booze are, like drinkers themselves, messy.

From Slate • Feb. 15, 2026

Jefferson's version of a classless American society was therefore a pipe dream, because the source of the problem was not European feudalism but human nature itself.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis