Idiom
Pie in the sky
Pie in the sky is an idea, plan or promise that sounds wonderful but is very unlikely to ever happen.
How people use it
People use it to dismiss plans that seem unrealistic (their plan to double sales in a month is pie in the sky). Before a noun it is often hyphenated (a pie-in-the-sky idea). It is informal and skeptical, so calling someone's plan pie in the sky can sound dismissive. It usually refers to hopes or promises about the future, not to things that have already failed.
Also said: pie-in-the-sky.
Examples
- A new pool in the backyard this year is pie in the sky unless we find a lot of money.
- The company's promises of instant profits turned out to be pie in the sky.
- Sam knows his dream of retiring at thirty-five is a bit pie-in-the-sky, but he keeps saving anyway.
Where it comes from
The phrase comes from 'The Preacher and the Slave,' a 1911 song by labor activist Joe Hill, written for a union songbook. The song parodied a popular hymn and mocked the idea of telling hungry workers to wait for a reward after death instead of better pay now, with the line 'You'll get pie in the sky when you die.' The phrase soon spread to mean any empty or unrealistic promise.
Check yourself
1. If a manager calls a proposal pie in the sky, what does she think?
Answer: It is unrealistic and unlikely to happen. Pie in the sky describes plans or promises that sound nice but probably will not come true.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: Free housing for every student sounds great, but it is pie in the sky.. The first sentence calls an appealing plan unrealistic. Eating on a plane is literal, and a practical plan that works is the opposite.
Similar idioms
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