• (RP) enPR: drēm, IPA: /dɹiːm/
• (GA) IPA: /dɹim/, [d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷɪi̯m], /dʒɹim/

dream (plural dreams)

1. Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.

   Synonyms: sweven

   hypo en

   • Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes.

   • I had a dream which was not all a dream.

   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter II, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, OCLC 40817384 ↗:

     She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.

2. (figurative) A hope or wish.
   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803 ↗:

     So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

3. A visionary scheme; a wild conceit; an idle fancy.

   Synonyms: vision

   a dream of bliss

   the dream of his youth

   • , John Donne's Satires Versified

     There sober thought pursued the amusing theme, / Till Fancy coloured it and formed a dream.

   • It is not to them a mere dream, but a very real aim which they propose.

• French: rêve, songe
• German: Traum
• Italian: sogno
• Portuguese: sonho
• Russian: сон
• Spanish: sueño, ensueño

• French: rêve, songe, voeu, souhait, vœu
• German: Traum, Wunsch
• Italian: sogno
• Portuguese: sonho, desejo
• Russian: мечта́
• Spanish: sueño

• French: rêve

dream (dreams, present participle dreaming; past and past participle dreamed)

1. (intransitive) To see imaginary events in one's mind while sleeping.
2. (intransitive) To hope, to wish.
3. (intransitive) To daydream.

   Stop dreaming and get back to work.

4. (transitive) To envision as an imaginary experience (usually when asleep).

   I dreamed a vivid dream last night.

   • And still they dream that they shall still succeed.

   • At length in sleep their bodies they compose, / And dreamt the future fight, and early rose.

5. (intransitive) To consider the possibility (of).

   I wouldn't dream of snubbing you in public.

   • 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I scene 5, lines 167-8

     There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175 ↗:

     But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶ […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.

• French: rêver
• German: träumen
• Italian: sognare
• Portuguese: sonhar
• Russian: ви́деть сон
• Spanish: soñar

• French: rêver, souhaiter
• German: träumen, wünschen
• Italian: sognare
• Portuguese: sonhar, desejar
• Russian: мечта́ть
• Spanish: soñar

• French: rêver
• German: träumen
• Portuguese: sonhar
• Russian: мечта́ть
• Spanish: soñar

dream (not comparable)

1. Ideal; perfect.
   • 2014, P.G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit and Other Stories, Random House (ISBN 9781473518599), page 158 ↗:

     If a girl who talked like that was not his dream girl, he didn't know a dream girl when he heard one.