figment of (one's)/the imagination
An experience that initially is thought to be real but is actually imagined. I thought I heard the sound of my front door opening last night but it turned out to be a figment of my imagination. I really thought Callie liked me, but I guess it was a figment of my imagination if she's asked John to the dance instead. A: "Where did that file go? I could have sworn I left it right here." B: "Guess that was a figment of the imagination."
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
figment of one's imagination
Something made up, invented, or fabricated, as in "The long dishevelled hair, the swelled black face, the exaggerated stature were figments of imagination" (Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847). This term is redundant, since figment means "product of the imagination." [Early 1800s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.