cuckoo

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!

To believe in or be absorbed by unrealistic, idealized, and/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!

Someone in a group who is seen as different and ostracized by his or her 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.

someone who is part of a group of people but different from them and not liked by them For Peter, his new father was a cuckoo in the nest.

to believe that things you want will happen, when really they are impossible Anyone who thinks this project will be finished within six weeks is living in 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.

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.”