Dreams
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Related to Dreams: Lucid dreams
dream
(drēm)n.
1. A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.
2. A daydream; a reverie.
3. A state of abstraction; a trance: wandering around in a dream.
4. A condition or achievement that is longed for; an aspiration: a dream of owning their own business.
5. A wild fancy or unrealistic hope: He knew that playing for a professional team was only a dream.
6. Informal One that is exceptionally gratifying, excellent, or beautiful: Her boyfriend is a dream.
v. dreamed or dreamt (drĕmt), dream·ing, dreams
v.intr.
1. To experience a dream in sleep: dreamed of meeting an old friend.
2. To daydream: sat there dreaming during class.
3. To have a deep aspiration or hope: dreaming of a world at peace.
4. To regard something as feasible or practical: I wouldn't dream of skiing on icy slopes.
v.tr.
Phrasal Verbs: 1. To experience a dream of while asleep: Did it storm last night, or did I dream it?
2. To conceive as possible; imagine: We never dreamed it would snow so much.
3. To have as an aspiration or hope: She dreams that she will become a pilot.
4. To pass (time) idly or in reverie.
dream on Informal
Used in the imperative to indicate that a statement or suggestion is improbable or unrealistic.
dream up
To invent; concoct: dreamed up a plan to corner the market.
[Middle English drem, from Old English drēam, joy, music; akin to Old Saxon drōm, mirth, dream.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Dreams
See also sleep.
1. a tendency to daydream.
2. Psychiatry. an extreme withdrawal into fantasy in thought or behavior, not correctible by external information. — autistic, adj.
2. Psychiatry. an extreme withdrawal into fantasy in thought or behavior, not correctible by external information. — autistic, adj.
the interpretation of dreams. — oneirocritic, n. — oneirocritical, adj.
Medicine. a disturbed sleep, involving nightmare and sometimes sleepwalking.
the science and interpretation of dreams. Also oneiroscopy.
a form of divination involving dreams. — oneiromancer, n.
a type of magic-lantern show in which rapidly moving images blend, change size, etc.; hence, any series of images that move and change rapidly, as a dream. — phantasmagorial, phantasmagoric, adj.
a nightmare.
a person much inclined to dream, especially to day-dream; a dreamy person.
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Dreams
See Also: AMBITION, HOPE, SLEEP
- The arc of dreams is black and streaked with gray as dead hair is —John Logan
- Dreamed of unearned riches, like Aladdin —Phyllis McGinley
- The dream … hovered about her still like a pleasant, warm fog —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
- A dream not interpreted is like a letter not read —Babylonian Talmud
- Dream safely like any child who has said prayers and to whom a lullaby has been sung —George Garrett
- Dreams are like a microscope through which we look at the hidden occurences in our soul —Erich Fromm
- Dreams are thoughts waiting to be thought —Jan de Hartog
- Dreams descend like cranes on gilded, forgetful wings —John Ashbery
- Dreams move my countenance as if it were earth being pelted by rain —Diane Wakoski
- The dreams of idealists are like the sound of footsteps in a tornado —Melvin I. Cooperman, June 8, 1987
- Dreams pop out like old fillings in the teeth —Diane Wakoski
- Dreams rising from your eyes like steam —George Bradley
- Dreams withered like flowers that are blighted by frost —Ellen Glasgow
See Also: DISINTEGRATION
- Dreamy as puberty —Karl Shapiro
- Fantasy is like jam; you have to spread it on a solid slice of bread. If not, it remains a shapeless thing, like jam, out of which you can’t make anything —Italo Calvino, television interview aired after his death in 1985
- Kept it [private dream] locked in his heart and took it out only when he was alone, like a miser counting his gold —Margaret Millar
- Like a dog, he hunts in dreams —Alfred, Lord Tennyson
- Nightmares have seasons like hurricanes —Lorrie Moore
- Old dreams still floated … like puddles of oil on the surface of a pail of water —Paige Mitchell
- Our dreams like clouds disperse —Alfred Noyes
- Toss wishes like a coin —George Garrett
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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