ask for the moon

English

ask for the moon (third-person singular simple present asks for the moon, present participle asking for the moon, simple past and past participle asked for the moon)

(idiomatic) To claim or desire something that one cannot have.
- 1987 February 1, T. R. Witomski, “Zeitgeist or Poltergeist? Why Gay Books Are So Bad”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 28, page 8:
  Major publishers think they are taking enough risk by simply publishing gay material. To want them to publish challenging, original gay books is asking them for the moon when they think they're already giving us the stars.

Catalan: demanar la lluna (ca)
Finnish: pyytää kuuta taivaalta (fi)
French: demander la lune (fr)
Italian: chiedere la luna
Occitan: voler mólher garias, demandar la luna (provençal), voler la mosca blua (gascon)
Polish: chcieć gwiazdki z nieba (literally “star from [the] sky”)
Portuguese: pedir o impossível (literally “ask for the impossible”)
Russian: no equivalent term in Russian, but see проси́ть доста́ть луну́ с не́ба (prosítʹ dostátʹ lunú s néba)
Spanish: pedir la luna (es), pedir cotufas en el golfo (es), pedir peras al olmo (es) (literally “ask the elm for pears”)