dream

• dreame (obsolete)

From Middle English drem, from Old English drēam (“music, joy”), from Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, from earlier *draugmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrowgʰ-mos, from *dʰrewgʰ- (“to deceive, injure, damage”).

The sense of "dream", though not attested in Old English, may still have been present (compare Old Saxon drōm (“bustle, revelry, jubilation", also "dream”)), and was undoubtedly reinforced later 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”), Low German Droom, Dutch droom (“dream”), German Traum (“dream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drøm, Norwegian Nynorsk draum, Swedish dröm (“dream”), Icelandic draumur (“dream”). Related also to Old Norse draugr (“ghost, undead, spectre”), Dutch bedrog (“deception, deceit”), German Trug (“deception, illusion”).

• enPR: drēm, IPA^(key): /dɹiːm/, [d͡ʒɹiːm], [d̠͡ɹ̠˔ʷɪi̯m]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːm

dream (plural dreams)

1. Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.

   Synonym: (archaic) sweven

   Hyponym: nightmare

   have a dream

   scary dream

   vivid dream

   erotic dream

   feel like a dream

   be in a dream

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes.

   • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter II (Burglary), page 378, column 1:

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

   • 1982, “Mad World”, in Roland Orzabal (lyrics), The Hurting, performed by Tears for Fears:

     And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
     The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had

2. (figurative) A hope or wish.

   have a dream

   fulfil a dream

   harbour a dream

   realize a dream

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1963 August 28, Martin Luther King, I have a Dream‎^[1]:

     I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

   • 2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in AV Club:

     Ralph Wiggum is generally employed as a bottomless fount of glorious non sequiturs, but in “I Love Lisa” he stands in for every oblivious chump who ever deluded himself into thinking that with persistence, determination, and a pure heart he can win the girl of his dreams.

   • 2010, Jonathan Green, Murder in the High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy, and Escape from Tibet‎^[2], 1st edition (Politics), PublicAffairs, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 33:

     More likely than capture is death at the hands of Chinese border police. Killings like that of fifteen-year-old Yeshe Dundrub, shot at night in Saga County (Ch: Saga Xian) in November 1999, while fleeing with forty others to Nepal, are covered up when possible. (Dundrub, whose dream was to be a monk, died in a military hospital bed nine hours after he was shot.)

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

   Synonym: vision

   live in a dream

   wake up from a dream

   impossible dream

   a dream of bliss

   the dream of his youth

   • c. 1735, Alexander Pope, John Donne's Satires Versified:

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

   • 1870, John Shairp, Culture and Religion:

     It is not, then, a mere dream, but a very real aim which they propose.

dream (third-person singular simple present dreams, present participle dreaming, simple past and past participle dreamed or dreamt)

1. (intransitive) To see imaginary events in one's mind while sleeping.

   Last night I dreamed of cupcakes and chocolate cookies.

   • 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1:

     Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the Sky
     I heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,
     "Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup
     Before Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."

2. (intransitive) To hope, to wish.

   Lucy dreams of becoming a scientist when she'll grow up.

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.

   • 1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC:

     And still they dream that they shall still succeed.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     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.

   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], 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:

     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.

• "Dreamt" is less common than "dreamed" in both US and UK English in current usage, though somewhat more prevalent in the UK than in the US.

dream (not comparable)

1. Ideal; perfect.
   • 2014, P.G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit and Other Stories, Random House, →ISBN, 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.

   • 2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-0 Brazil”, in BBC News‎^[3]:

     England found chances a rarity, although Liverpool striker Solanke almost made it a dream debut in the closing seconds, only to miscontrol at the far post.

• “dream”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “dream”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• Emard, derma-, m'dear, dearm, ad rem, armed, medar, derma, redam, Mader, ramed, -derma

From Middle Irish dremm (“crowd, throng”),^[1] from Proto-Celtic *drexsmā, itself probably related to *drungos (“throng, host”).

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /dˠɾˠaumˠ/,^[2] /dˠɾˠoumˠ/^[3] (as if spelled dram)
• (Connacht) IPA^(key): /dʲɾʲɑːmˠ/,^[4] /dʲɾʲamˠ/^[5]
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /dʲɾʲamˠ/^[6]

dream m (genitive singular dreama, nominative plural dreamanna)

1. crowd, group of people, party (group of people traveling or attending an event together, or participating in the same activity)
   • 1929, Tomás Ó Criomhthain, “IV: Scolaidheacht agus Fánaidheacht”, in An t-Oileánach, page 48:

     Thug sé scilling do’n té ab’ fhearr is gach rang agus ar shíneadh na scillinge ’nár rang-ne ní h-aenne de’n dream mór do fuair í ach me féin.

     He gave a shilling to the best one in each class, and when he was giving out shillings in our class, there wasn't one in that big group who got one but me myself.

• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “dream”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 260
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “dream”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

dream

1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of drem

• drīm, drēm, *drīem, drām

From Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, whence also Old Frisian drām, Old Saxon drōm (“joy, music, dream”), Old High German troum, Old Norse draumr.

• IPA^(key): /dræ͜ɑːm/

drēam m

1. joy, pleasure, gladness, rejoicing
   • 10th century, The Wanderer:

     Wōriað þā wīnsalo; · waldend liċġað
     drēame bidrorene; · duguþ eal ġecrong,
     wlonc bī wealle. · Sume wīġ fornōm,

     The wine-halls ramble; lords lie still,
     deprived of mirth; army completely perished,
     proud by the wall. The war took away some men,

2. that which causes merriment: musical instrument, music, melody, song, harmony
3. frenzy, ecstasy

Strong a-stem:

• drēamere
• drīeman
• pīpdrēam

• Middle English: drem, dreme, dreem, dreeme, dream, dræm (Early Middle English)
  • English: dream
  • Scots: dreme

• swefn
• mǣtan

From Middle Irish dremm (“crowd, throng”),^[1] from Proto-Celtic *drexsmā, itself probably related to *drungos (“throng, host”).

• IPA^(key): /d̪̊ɾaum/
• (Wester Ross) IPA^(key): /d̪̊ɾeːm/, /d̪̊ɾɛ̃um/^[2]

dream m (plural dreamannan)

1. kindred, tribe, company

   is rìoghail mo dhream ― royal is my race (motto of Clan MacGregor)

2. (chiefly biblical) people, folk
3. category

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “dream”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[4], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN

From Old Frisian drām, from Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz.

• IPA^(key): /drɪə̯m/

dream c (plural dreamen, diminutive dreamke)

1. dream, vision in one's sleep
   • 2008, Greet Andringa, Libben reach, Friese Pers Boekerij, page 70.

     Hy koe net sliepe, want de dreamen oer syn deade maten wiene noch slimmer as wat er mei de eagen iepen seach.

     He couldn't sleep, because the dreams about his dead companions were even worse than what he saw with his eyes open.

2. daydream
3. desire, what one wishes
4. delusion

• deidream

• dreame

• “dream”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011