How to Use pipe dream in a Sentence

pipe dream

noun
Definition of pipe dreamnext
Synonyms for pipe dreamnext
  • His plan for starting his own business was just a pipe dream.
  • For the Palestinians, a state of their own seems like a pipe dream.
    — Ilan Goldenberg, Foreign Affairs, 21 June 2021
  • Meaning getting back a promising young player or a first-round pick was a pipe dream.
    — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, 6 Feb. 2020
  • Eternal life through advanced technology seems like a pipe dream for a...
    — Adam Kirsch, WSJ, 20 June 2020
  • That might seem like a pipe dream, but no more so than the overly ambitious prospect of a spring training starting four weeks from now.
    — Henry Schulman, SFChronicle.com, 13 May 2020
  • With the postseason a pipe dream, here are three story lines for the Pistons’ final games.
    — Vince Ellis, Detroit Free Press, 15 Feb. 2020
  • The idea is more than just a pipe dream, because these two schools are more similar than what their recent history has shown.
    — Tyler Kraft, Indianapolis Star, 8 Dec. 2019
  • The pipe dream of a successful third-party presidential candidate infects our politics like a virus every four years.
    — Letters To The Editor, The Mercury News, 6 June 2024
  • For now these are just a pipe dream, but here’s hoping someone puts in a bid to make these sophisticated visualizations a reality.
    — Jennifer Fernandez, House Beautiful, 31 Dec. 2019
  • Despite Musk’s strong feelings, however, fully autonomous cars have continued to be a bit of a pipe dream for several years now.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 9 Apr. 2020
  • Coaches and players would’ve been thrown out into dozens of virtual interviews and radio spots to discuss a season and schedule that became an obsolete pipe dream months ago.
    — Nick Moyle, ExpressNews.com, 1 Aug. 2020
  • With six games left and the playoffs now a pipe dream for the Bears, the development of young core pieces such as Smith has great meaning and will attract significant focus.
    — Dan Wiederer, chicagotribune.com, 21 Nov. 2019
  • These success stories provide hope to those contemplating hair transplant by demonstrating that getting a thicker head of hair is a genuine, attainable goal rather than merely a pipe dream.
    — Tyler Shepherd, USA TODAY, 20 Apr. 2024
  • The playoffs seem like a pipe dream for the 49ers right now.
    — Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 Oct. 2021
  • The Bears have lost three in a row, and a playoff run looks like a pipe dream.
    — Lorenzo Reyes, USA TODAY, 9 Nov. 2020
  • That last one is more of a pipe dream, but who knows where life may take me.
    — Josh Newman, The Salt Lake Tribune, 30 July 2021
  • That achievement was decades in the making, and for most of that time seemed a pipe dream.
    — Ed Whelan, National Review, 14 July 2022
  • In a non-Covid world, the Snyder Cut remains a pipe dream.
    — Scott Mendelson, Forbes, 12 Aug. 2022
  • Deer hunting year-round is a pipe dream in most places.
    — Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 16 Oct. 2020
  • In this world, the golden mean does not exist and equipoise is a pipe dream.
    — Kent Sepkowitz, CNN, 5 Nov. 2022
  • But Viveca Greene, PhD, tells me that might be a pipe dream.
    — Molly Longman, refinery29.com, 29 Oct. 2020
  • That’s a pipe dream that most viewers put away long ago.
    — Hank Stuever, Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2020
  • Just a few months ago, reaching the glitzy checkpoint was a pipe dream.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2022
  • With the project looking like a pipe dream, the Corps changed everything in 2017.
    — Ben Brasch, ajc, 16 Dec. 2020
  • The idea was a pipe dream in the 1980s, when less than a quarter of the country supported it.
    — Nicolas Rivero, Quartz, 29 Aug. 2022
  • But as each day passes, that feels more a pipe dream than a solid plan.
    — cincinnati.com, 10 Dec. 2020
  • Economists on both sides of the aisle say that hopes of clawing back that cash is a pipe dream.
    — Alana Abramson, Time, 2 Mar. 2021
  • Some might call it a pipe dream, but our best minds are working to bring Facebook back.
    — Sauleha Kamal, The New Yorker, 30 July 2023
  • Just a couple of months ago, the idea of full-capacity shows in 2021 seemed like a pipe dream.
    — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 1 July 2021
  • Then again, putting even a brief scare into the Astros on Friday night seemed like a pipe dream.
    — Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 29 Oct. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pipe dream.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: