dream Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a series of mental images and emotions occurring during sleep
    dreaming.
    • I had a dream about you last night
  2. noun imaginative thoughts indulged in while awake
    dreaming.
    • he lives in a dream that has nothing to do with reality
  3. noun a cherished desire
    aspiration; ambition.
    • his ambition is to own his own business
  4. noun a fantastic but vain hope (from fantasies induced by the opium pipe)
    pipe dream.
    • I have this pipe dream about being emperor of the universe
  5. noun a state of mind characterized by abstraction and release from reality
    • he went about his work as if in a dream
  6. noun someone or something wonderful
    • this dessert is a dream
  7. verb have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy
    woolgather; stargaze; daydream.
  8. verb experience while sleeping
    • She claims to never dream
    • He dreamt a strange scene

WordNet

Dream noun
Etymology
Akin to OS. drm, D. droom, G. traum, Icel. draumr, Dan. & Sw. dröm; cf. G. trügen to deceive, Skr. druh to harm, hurt, try to hurt. AS. dreám joy, gladness, and OS. drm joy are, perh., different words; cf. Gr. noise.
Definitions
  1. The thoughts, or series of thoughts, or imaginary transactions, which occupy the mind during sleep; a sleeping vision.
    Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes. Dryden.
    I had a dream which was not all a dream. Byron.
  2. 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; as, a dream of bliss; the dream of his youth.
    There sober thought pursued the amusing theme, Till Fancy colored it and formed a dream. Pope.
    It is not them a mere dream, but a very real aim which they propose. J. C. Shairp.
Dream intransitive verb
Etymology
Cf. AS. drman, drman, to rejoice. See Dream, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Dreamed or Dreamt (); present participle & verbal noun Dreaming
Definitions
  1. To have ideas or images in the mind while in the state of sleep; to experience sleeping visions; -- often with of; as, to dream of a battle, or of an absent friend.
  2. 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.
    Here may we sit and dream Over the heavenly theme. Keble.
    They dream on in a constant course of reading, but not digesting. Locke.
Dream transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To have a dream of; to see, or have a vision of, in sleep, or in idle fancy; -- often followed by an objective clause.
    Your old men shall dream dreams. Acts ii. 17.
    At length in sleep their bodies they compose, And dreamt the future fight. Dryden.
    And still they dream that they shall still succeed. Cowper.
    Dryden.

Webster 1913