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View synonyms for cloud-cuckoo-land

cloud-cuckoo-land

[ kloud-koo-koo-land, -kook-oo- ]

noun

  1. an idealized, illusory domain of imagination; cloudland:

    the cloud-cuckoo-land of technicolor cartoon whimsy.



cloud-cuckoo-land

/ ˈklaʊdˌlænd /

noun

  1. a realm of fantasy, dreams, or impractical notions
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of cloud-cuckoo-land1

First recorded in 1815–25; translation of Greek Nephelokokkȳgía, the realm which separates the gods from mortals in Aristophanes' The Birds
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Idioms and Phrases

An idealized mythical domain, as in That idea about flying cars is straight out of cloud-cuckoo land . This expression originated as a translation from the Greek of Aristophanes' play The Birds , where it signifies the realm built by the birds to separate the gods from humankind. It came into use in the 1820s. During the 19th century it began to be used for a place of wildly fanciful dreams, unrealistic expectations, or the like, and it also acquired the connotation of “crazy” (from cuckoo , slang for “crazy” since about 1900). Also see la-la land ; never-never land .
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Example Sentences

"Gradually, almost imperceptibly, over the years the funeral men have constructed their own grotesque cloud-cuckoo-land where the trappings of Gracious Living are transformed, as in a nightmare, into the trappings of Gracious Dying," she wrote.

Canterbury came down from the "cloud-cuckoo-land" in which Selwyn twitted her with dwelling.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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