From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpious hope/wishpious hope/wishWANTsomething that you want to be true or to happen, but that is very unlikely All these agreements and ideas remain little more than pious hopes in the present climate. → pious
Examples from the Corpus
pious hope/wish• But in the present climate that is a somewhat pious hope.• But these were merely pious hopes.• The international community has so far salved its conscience by voicing a succession of pious hopes.• This may be a pious hope.• Criteria Unless there is a quantitative criterion there is no objective, only a pious hope of better times. 