castle in Spain
- idiom
- Archaic
:
castillo en España
- She often talks about her castles in Spain, but never takes any steps to make them a reality.
Examples
-
When speaking of someone who makes impossible plans—castles in the air—the French typically say that he is lord of castles in Spain.
Fiction book (2001) -
My castle in Spain is to write about food, to sit at this empty table and cover the pictures of food with a blank sheet of paper, and then to write on the page about food.
Fiction book (2001) -
Many people have a castle in Spain where they dream of becoming famous without any real plan.
-
His idea of starting a business without any capital is just a castle in Spain that will never come true.
Synonyms
43
2.6
Pleasant thoughts that distract you from what is happening now
15
7.5
A pleasant daydream when you are lost in thought
2
8.8
A made-up perfect place that exists only in dreams
2
9.9
Being lost in pleasant thoughts and not noticing things around you
1
8.2
An idea or plan that is unrealistic and unlikely to happen
1
3.2
Thinking about pleasant things while not paying attention
A dream that is not likely to come true
A hoped-for place or situation that promises great wealth and opportunity
Antonyms
How Realistic
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'castle in Spain' does not yield its idiomatic meaning ('an idle or fanciful dream') from the literal meanings of 'castle', 'in', and 'Spain' — a learner would most likely interpret it as a literal location. This is a conventionalized metaphorical expression whose sense is culture-specific and unpredictable from the parts, so a B1 learner knowing the words would not reliably infer the idiomatic meaning.
Etymology
The phrase castle in Spain comes from the image of someone imagining a grand castle far away in Spain, a beautiful but distant place you cannot reach. Because that castle is only a daydream, the phrase means 'an impractical or unattainable hope or plan'.