will o' the wisp
- noun
- /ˈwɪl ə ðə wɪsp/
- Literature
:
luz de gas
- The peace agreement sometimes seemed like a will o' the wisp, always just out of reach.
Examples
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For years, investors chased the will o' the wisp of a perfect market strategy.
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Her dream of finding buried treasure turned out to be a will o' the wisp.
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A will o' the wisp can seem so real.
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Don't let your dreams become a will o' the wisp!
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For years, investors chased the will o' the wisp of a perfect market strategy.
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Her dream of finding buried treasure turned out to be a will o' the wisp.
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The peace agreement sometimes seemed like a will o' the wisp, always just out of reach.
Synonyms
36
8.1
A hope that is beautiful but unlikely to come true
1
9.9
A ghost-like figure that seems real but is not
A hope that leads people on but cannot be reached
A small, strange light that appears over wet ground and may lead people the wrong way
A pale, flickering light that appears at night over marshy ground
Antonyms
How Elusive
- Informal
23
6.8
- Literature
5
9.3
- Literature
7
7.4
319
4.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
will + o' + the + wisp
The folklore/idiomatic sense of a misleading, elusive light cannot be derived from the parts: 'will' and the contraction 'o'' do not signal a ghostly or deceptive phenomenon and 'wisp' only denotes a small tuft/strand. The phrase is archaic and idiomatic (folklore-based), so a B1 learner who knows the individual words would not predict the full meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
Will o' the wisp comes from old stories about small lights that appear over marshes at night. These lights, called a wisp because they look like a tiny moving flame, seemed to lead travelers away and disappeared when you followed them, so the phrase now means 'something misleading or impossible to catch'.