"chase a rainbow" meaning in English

See chase a rainbow in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-chase a rainbow.ogg Forms: chases a rainbow [present, singular, third-person], chasing a rainbow [participle, present], chased a rainbow [participle, past], chased a rainbow [past], chasing a rainbow [alternative], chasing rainbows [alternative]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} chase a rainbow (third-person singular simple present chases a rainbow, present participle chasing a rainbow, simple past and past participle chased a rainbow)
  1. (idiomatic) To pursue something illusory, impractical, or impossible. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: tilt at windmills, fight a losing battle, ask for the moon Related terms: snark hunt, the cake is a lie, wild-goose chase Coordinate_terms: reach for the stars, reach for the sky, reach for the moon, shoot for the moon, aim for the sky, aim for the stars Translations (to pursue the illusory, impractical, or impossible): tavoitella kuuta taivaalta (Finnish), délibábot kerget (Hungarian), gonić za mrzonkami [imperfective] (Polish)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "chases a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chasing a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chased a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chased a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chasing a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chasing rainbows",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "chase a rainbow (third-person singular simple present chases a rainbow, present participle chasing a rainbow, simple past and past participle chased a rainbow)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Hungarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "reach for the stars"
        },
        {
          "word": "reach for the sky"
        },
        {
          "word": "reach for the moon"
        },
        {
          "word": "shoot for the moon"
        },
        {
          "word": "aim for the sky"
        },
        {
          "word": "aim for the stars"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pursue something illusory, impractical, or impossible."
      ],
      "id": "en-chase_a_rainbow-en-verb-RnmjSlbj",
      "links": [
        [
          "pursue",
          "pursue"
        ],
        [
          "illusory",
          "illusory"
        ],
        [
          "impractical",
          "impractical"
        ],
        [
          "impossible",
          "impossible"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To pursue something illusory, impractical, or impossible."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "snark hunt"
        },
        {
          "word": "the cake is a lie"
        },
        {
          "word": "wild-goose chase"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "tilt at windmills"
        },
        {
          "word": "fight a losing battle"
        },
        {
          "word": "ask for the moon"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to pursue the illusory, impractical, or impossible",
          "word": "tavoitella kuuta taivaalta"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "to pursue the illusory, impractical, or impossible",
          "word": "délibábot kerget"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "to pursue the illusory, impractical, or impossible",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "gonić za mrzonkami"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-chase a rainbow.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/72/En-au-chase_a_rainbow.ogg/En-au-chase_a_rainbow.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/En-au-chase_a_rainbow.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "chase a rainbow"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "chases a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chasing a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chased a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chased a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chasing a rainbow",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "chasing rainbows",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "chase a rainbow (third-person singular simple present chases a rainbow, present participle chasing a rainbow, simple past and past participle chased a rainbow)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "snark hunt"
    },
    {
      "word": "the cake is a lie"
    },
    {
      "word": "wild-goose chase"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with Hungarian translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations"
      ],
      "coordinate_terms": [
        {
          "word": "reach for the stars"
        },
        {
          "word": "reach for the sky"
        },
        {
          "word": "reach for the moon"
        },
        {
          "word": "shoot for the moon"
        },
        {
          "word": "aim for the sky"
        },
        {
          "word": "aim for the stars"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To pursue something illusory, impractical, or impossible."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pursue",
          "pursue"
        ],
        [
          "illusory",
          "illusory"
        ],
        [
          "impractical",
          "impractical"
        ],
        [
          "impossible",
          "impossible"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To pursue something illusory, impractical, or impossible."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "tilt at windmills"
        },
        {
          "word": "fight a losing battle"
        },
        {
          "word": "ask for the moon"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-chase a rainbow.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/72/En-au-chase_a_rainbow.ogg/En-au-chase_a_rainbow.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/En-au-chase_a_rainbow.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to pursue the illusory, impractical, or impossible",
      "word": "tavoitella kuuta taivaalta"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "to pursue the illusory, impractical, or impossible",
      "word": "délibábot kerget"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "to pursue the illusory, impractical, or impossible",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "gonić za mrzonkami"
    }
  ],
  "word": "chase a rainbow"
}

Download raw JSONL data for chase a rainbow meaning in English (2.4kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (8b3c49c and 3c020d2). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.