From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfondly imagine/believe/hope etcfondly imagine/believe/hope etcHOPEto believe something that is untrue, hope for something that will probably not happen etc Some people still fondly believe that modern science can solve all the world’s problems. → fondly
Examples from the Corpus
fondly imagine/believe/hope etc• The Gombe rainforest is not the sort of Eden we might fondly imagine.• Some people fondly believe that chess-playing computers work by internally trying out all possible combinations of chess moves.• Some Tories fondly imagine that privatisation will eliminate the need to subsidise the railways. 