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pie in the sky
pie in the sky
- A preposterously optimistic goal: “The candidate says we can balance the budget by next year, but I think that's pie in the sky.”
Word History and Origins
Origin of pie in the sky1
Idioms and Phrases
An empty wish or promise, as in His dream of being hired as a sports editor proved to be pie in the sky . This expression was first recorded in 1911 in a rallying song of a union, the International Workers of the World (or “Wobblies”): “Work and pray, live on hay, you'll get pie in the sky when you die.”Example Sentences
“Your EPA is targeting Kentucky coal with pie-in-the-sky regulations,” she says in a message to the president.
I've been through one renovation too many know that this two-year time frame for completion is pie-in-the-sky malarkey.
We were called communists, imperialists, fascists, and (our favorite) "pie-in-the-sky open-border elitists."
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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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