pie in the sky
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pie 1
(pī)n.
Idiom: 1. A dish composed of fruit, meat, cheese, or other ingredients baked over, under, or surrounded by a crust of pastry or other dough.
2. A layer cake having cream, custard, or jelly filling.
3. Informal A pizza.
4. Something similar to or resembling pie: mud pie.
5. A whole that can be portioned out: "That would ... enlarge the economic pie by making the most productive use of every investment dollar" (New York Times).
pie in the sky
An empty wish or promise: "To outlaw deficits ... is pie in the sky" (Howard H. Baker, Jr.).
[Middle English.]
pie 2
(pī)n.
See magpie.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pīca.]
pie 3
(pī)n.
A former unit of currency of India.
[Hindi pā'ī, from Sanskrit pādikā, quarter, from pāt, pad-, foot, leg; see ped- in Indo-European roots.]
pie 4
(pī)n.
An almanac of services used in the English church before the Reformation.
[Medieval Latin pīca.]
pie 5
(pī)n. & v. Printing
Variant of pi2.
PIE
abbr.
Proto-Indo-European
pie1
(paɪ)n.
1. a pastry crust filled with fruit, meat, pudding, etc., and baked, often with a top crust.
2. a layer cake with a cream or custard filling: Boston cream pie.
3. a total or whole that can be divided: They want a bigger part of the profit pie.
4. an activity or affair: I'm sure he had a finger in the pie.
Idioms: pie in the sky, the illusory prospect of future benefits.
[1275–1325; Middle English; of obscure orig.]
pie3
(paɪ)n., v.t. pied, pie•ing.
pi 2 .
PIE
Proto-Indo-European.
pie in the sky
A wish or promise that is extremely unlikely to be fulfilled.
Translations
شَيءٌ جيّد مَوعود وغَيْر مؤكَّد
vzdušné zámky
luftkastel
álom: csak egy szép álom
innantóm loforî
vzdušné zámky
ham hayâlolmayacak dua
pie
(pai) noun food baked in a covering of pastry. a steak/apple pie.
pie in the sky something good promised for the future but which one is not certain or likely to get. He says he will get a well-paid job but it's just pie in the sky.