cuckoo
(redirected from coocoo)be 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!
See also: land
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!
See also: land
cuckoo
Crazy. There's a guy on our corner who shouts about the end of the world; I think he's a little cuckoo.
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.
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!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
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.
See also: land
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.
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.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
coo-coo
and cuckoo1. 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
verbSee coo-coo
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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.”
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price