blue-skies

• blue skies, blue-sky, bluesky

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

blue-skies (not comparable)

1. Unrealistic or impractical.
2. Of no immediate practical application.

   Synonym: theoretical

   Antonym: real-world

   Coordinate term: greenfield

   blue-skies research

   • 1992, Gary Heap, Alfie Windsor, A structured approach to systems development, McGraw-Hill:

     These options can be presented either as 'blue skies', i.e. no constraints are imposed by the existing systems, or as 'pragmatic reality', i.e. building on the existing systems. It is better to take a blue skies approach to strategic information […]

• blue-sky thinking