be in cloud-cuckoo land

To believe in or be absorbed by unrealistic, idealized, or fanciful ideas that are beyond the realms of possibility. If Tom thinks he'll be able to live off his bad poetry, he's in cloud-cuckoo land! OK, you're in cloud-cuckoo land if you think these harebrained schemes will actually work! Are you in cloud-cuckoo land? We'll never be able to convince a behemoth like Shmapple to invest in our tiny tech company!

cloud-cuckoo land

A state or realm of unrealistic and idealized fancy, beyond the realms of possibility. Often preceded by "live/be in." He's always got some harebrained schemes on how to fix the world, all of them right out of cloud-cuckoo land! If Tom thinks he'll be able to live off his bad poetry, he's living in cloud-cuckoo land! Are you in cloud-cuckoo land? We'll never be able to convince a behemoth like Shmapple to invest in our tiny tech company!

cuckoo

slang Crazy. There's a guy on our corner who shouts about the end of the world; I think he's a little cuckoo. You can't tell people you want to start a business selling bees as pets—they'll think you're cuckoo! I don't know why she yelled at me like that—she just went cuckoo all of a sudden.

cuckoo in the nest

Someone in a group who is seen as different and ostracized by their peers. Since Sam always got good grades and never got in trouble, he was seen by his unruly peers as a cuckoo in the nest. Once everyone learned of her affair, she moved away from the city, rather than stay and be a cuckoo in the nest. Oh man, if the rumor's origin is traced back to me, I'll be a cuckoo in the nest with most of the girls in my class.

live in cloud-cuckoo land

To believe that unrealistic, idealized, and/or fanciful ideas will happen, when in fact they are beyond the realms of possibility. Tom thinks he'll be able to live off his bad poetry—he's living in cloud-cuckoo land if you ask me!

cloud-cuckoo land

An idealized mythical domain, as in That idea about flying cars is straight out of cloud-cuckoo land. This expression originated as a translation from the Greek of Aristophanes' play The Birds, where it signifies the realm built by the birds to separate the gods from humankind. It came into use in the 1820s. During the 19th century it began to be used for a place of wildly fanciful dreams, unrealistic expectations, or the like, and it also acquired the connotation of "crazy" (from cuckoo, slang for "crazy" since about 1900). Also see la-la land; never-never land.

cuckoo in the nest

an unwelcome intruder in a place or situation.

The female cuckoo often lays its eggs in other birds' nests. Once hatched, the cuckoo fledgling pushes the other birds' fledglings out of the nest.

coo-coo

and cuckoo

1. mod. unconscious. I socked him on the snoot and knocked him coo-coo.

2. mod. insane. How did I ever get involved in this cuckoo scheme, anyway?

cuckoo

verb

See coo-coo

Cloud Cuckoo Land

A nonexistent place of perfection, a utopia. This phrase comes from The Birds by the Greek dramatist Aristophanes, in which the birds decide to build a perfect city called Cloud Cuckoo City. Over the years “City” became “Land.”