Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.
  • noun A daydream; a reverie.
  • noun A state of abstraction; a trance.
  • noun A condition or achievement that is longed for; an aspiration.
  • noun A wild fancy or unrealistic hope.
  • noun Informal One that is exceptionally gratifying, excellent, or beautiful.
  • intransitive verb To experience a dream in sleep.
  • intransitive verb To daydream.
  • intransitive verb To have a deep aspiration or hope.
  • intransitive verb To regard something as feasible or practical.
  • intransitive verb To experience a dream of while asleep.
  • intransitive verb To conceive as possible; imagine.
  • intransitive verb To have as an aspiration or hope.
  • intransitive verb To pass (time) idly or in reverie.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A succession of images or fantastic ideas present in the mind during sleep; the sleeping state in which such images occur.
  • noun That which is presented to the mind by the imaginative faculty, though not in sleep; a vision of the fancy, especially a wild or vain fancy.
  • noun A noise, especially a joyful noise; jubilation; music.
  • To be partially, and with more or less confusion or incoherence, conscious of images and thoughts during sleep: with of before an object: as, to dream of a battle; to dream of an absent friend.
  • To think idly or dreamily; give way to visionary thought or speculation; indulge in reverie or waking visions.
  • To have indefinite thought or expectation; think of something as possible; conceive: with of: as, he little dreamed of his approaching fate.
  • To see or think in a dream; imagine in sleep.
  • To imagine as if in a dream; think about vainly, idly, or fancifully.
  • To suppose indefinitely; have a conception of or about; believe in a general way.
  • To pass in reverie or inaction; spend idly or fancifully: followed by away, out, or through: as, to dream, away one's life.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The thoughts, or series of thoughts, or imaginary transactions, which occupy the mind during sleep; a sleeping vision.
  • noun A visionary scheme; a wild conceit; an idle fancy; a vagary; a revery; -- in this sense, applied to an imaginary or anticipated state of happiness
  • intransitive verb To have ideas or images in the mind while in the state of sleep; to experience sleeping visions; -- often with of.
  • intransitive verb To let the mind run on in idle revery or vagary; to anticipate vaguely as a coming and happy reality; to have a visionary notion or idea; to imagine.
  • transitive verb To have a dream of; to see, or have a vision of, in sleep, or in idle fancy; -- often followed by an objective clause.
  • transitive verb to pass in revery or inaction; to spend in idle vagaries.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.
  • noun A hope or wish.
  • verb intransitive To see imaginary events in one's mind while sleeping
  • verb intransitive To hope, to wish
  • verb intransitive To daydream
  • verb transitive to create an imaginary experience (usually when asleep)

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a cherished desire
  • verb have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy
  • noun a state of mind characterized by abstraction and release from reality
  • noun someone or something wonderful
  • noun a series of mental images and emotions occurring during sleep
  • verb experience while sleeping
  • noun a fantastic but vain hope (from fantasies induced by the opium pipe)
  • noun imaginative thoughts indulged in while awake

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English drem, from Old English drēam, joy, music; akin to Old Saxon drōm, mirth, dream.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English dreem, possibly from Old English drēam ("joy, pleasure, gladness, delight, mirth, rejoicing, rapture, ecstasy, frenzy, music, musical instrument, harmony, melody, song, singing, jubilation, sound of music"), from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, *draugmaz (“festivity, dream, ghost, hallucination, delusion, deception”), from Proto-Germanic *draugaz (“delusion, mirage, illusion”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrAugʰ-, *dʰreugʰ- (“to deceive, injure, damage”); meaning influenced in Middle English by Old Norse draumr ("dream"), from same Proto-Germanic root. Cognate with Scots dreme ("dream"), North Frisian drom ("dream"), West Frisian dream ("dream"), Dutch droom ("dream"), German Traum ("dream"), Swedish dröm ("dream"), Icelandic draumur ("dream"). Related also to Old English drēag ("spectre, apparition"), Dutch bedrog ("deception, deceit"), German Trug ("deception, illusion").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English dremen, possibly (see above) from Old English drīeman ("to make a joyous sound with voice or with instrument; rejoice; sing a song; play on an instrument"), from Proto-Germanic *draumijanan, *draugmijanan (“to be festive, dream, hallucinate”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrAugʰ-, *dʰreugʰ- (“to deceive, injure, damage”). Cognate with Scots dreme ("to dream"), West Frisian dreame ("to dream"), Dutch dromen ("to dream"), German träumen ("to dream"), Swedish drömma ("to dream, muse"), Icelandic dreyma ("to dream").

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Examples

  • Yeah, now that his dream job is on the horizon…..dream on, Sam.

    Think Progress » ThinkFast: November 30, 2006 2006

  • Anyway, so I got up the morning and crawled out of bed and the two feet it takes to get into my computer chair and decided that it would be a fun idea to go online and look up one of those dream dictionary sites and see what it says about my dream…

    goldylockz22 Diary Entry goldylockz22 2003

  • She delights in this -- a sketch within a sketch -- a dream within _a dream_.

    International Weekly Miscellany - Volume 1, No. 6, August 5, 1850 Various

  • But it was a dream -- a _dream_, only it was horrible!

    The Hunted Woman James Oliver Curwood 1903

  • On the repetition of this same experience we were forced to the supposition that there is an _intimate bond, with laws of its own, between the unintelligible and complicated nature of the dream and the difficulties attending communication of the thoughts connected with the dream_.

    Dream Psychology Psychoanalysis for Beginners Sigmund Freud 1897

  • Moltke: "Eternal peace is only a dream, _and not even a beautiful dream_!"

    Gems (?) of German Thought William Archer 1890

  • And I was not only given to dream by day -- I dreamed by night; my sleep was full of dreams -- terrible nightmares, exquisite visions, strange scenes full of inexplicable reminiscence; all vague and incoherent, like all men's dreams that have hitherto been; _for I had not yet learned how to dream_.

    Peter Ibbetson George Du Maurier 1865

  • But, in a long and demanding race in hot and humid conditions, Vettel knows his title dream will not be realised easily as he has to overcome not only the physical and technical challenges, but also the determination of his rivals.

    NEWS.com.au | Top Stories 2011

  • Cesc Fabregas says the Gunners are refusing to give up on the title dream

    Give Me Football Featured Content 2010

  • Cesc Fabregas says the Gunners are refusing to give up on the title dream

    Give Me Football Featured Content 2010

Comments

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  • A powerful word, often used, but rarely diluted. Where would we be without dreams?

    December 19, 2007

  • Beautiful, mollusque.

    December 19, 2007