dream
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ-
Proto-West Germanic *draum
Old English drēam
Middle English drem
English dream
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”), Saterland Frisian Droom (“dream”), West Frisian dream (“dream”), Dutch droom (“dream”), German Traum (“dream”), Limburgish Droum (“dream”), Luxembourgish Dram (“dream”), Yiddish טרוים (troym, “dream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drøm (“dream”), Faroese dreymur (“dream”), Icelandic draumur (“dream”), Norwegian Nynorsk draum (“dream”), Swedish dröm (“dream”). Related also to Old Norse draugr (“ghost, undead, spectre”), Dutch bedrog (“deception, deceit”), German Trug (“deception, illusion”).
The verb is from Middle English dremen, possibly (see below) 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 *draumijaną, *draugmijaną (“to be festive, dream, hallucinate”), from the noun. Cognate with Scots dreme (“to dream”), Saterland Frisian drööme (“to dream”), West Frisian dreame (“to dream”), Dutch dromen (“to dream”), German träumen (“to dream”), Luxembourgish dreemen (“to dream”), Yiddish טרוימען (troymen, “to dream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drømme (“to dream”), Faroese droyma (“to dream”), Icelandic dreyma (“to dream”), Norwegian Nynorsk drømma, drømme, drøyma, drøyme (“to dream”), Swedish drömma (“to dream, muse”).
more details
The derivation from Old English drēam is controversial, since the word itself is only attested in writing in its meaning of “joy, mirth, musical sound”. Possibly there was a separate word drēam meaning “images seen while sleeping”, which was avoided in literature due to potential confusion with the “joy” sense. Otherwise, the modern sense must have been borrowed from another Germanic language, most probably Old Norse. Since this is the common sense in all Germanic languages outside the British isles, a spontaneous development from “joy, mirth” to “dream” in Middle English is hardly conceivable. In Old Saxon, the cognate drōm did mean “dream”, but was a rare word.
Attested words for “sleeping vision” in Old English, both of which appeared in The Dream of the Rood, were mǣting (Middle English mæte, mete), from an unclear source, and swefn (Modern English sweven), from Proto-Germanic *swefnaz, from Proto-Indo-European *swepno-, *swep-; compare Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”).
Inflected forms:
form: dreams
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: dreame
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: dreams
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: dreaming
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: dreamed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: dreamed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: dreamt
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: dreamt
pos: verb
tags: past
form: dreame
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: dreame
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: have a dream
scary dream
vivid dream
erotic dream
feel like a dream
be in a dream
Last night I had a dream about an immortal snail that chased me around and could kill me if it touched me.
I had a dream where they introduced a new character in Homestuck named Blave, who was just Dave but blue.
I had a dream that they updated The Emoji Movie for Gen Alpha.
Last night I had a dream I was on a plane.
Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes.
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.
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
gloss: A hope or wish.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
examples: have a dream
fulfil a dream
harbour a dream
realize a dream
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.
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!
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.
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.)
gloss: A visionary scheme; a wild conceit; an idle fancy.
pos: noun
examples: live in a dream
wake up from a dream
impossible dream
a dream of bliss
the dream of his youth
There sober thought pursued the amusing theme,
 Till Fancy coloured it and formed a dream.
It is not, then, a mere dream, but a very real aim which they propose.
gloss: To see imaginary events in one's mind while sleeping.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Although people primarily dream during the REM phase of sleeping, they can dream during non-REM sleep as well.
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."
gloss: To hope, to wish.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Lucy dreams of becoming a scientist when she grows up.
gloss: To daydream.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Stop dreaming and get back to work.
gloss: To envision as an imaginary experience (usually when asleep).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To consider the possibility (of).
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: I wouldn't dream of snubbing you in public.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
 Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
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.
gloss: Ideal; perfect.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
examples: Gonna drive back down where you once belonged / In the back of a dream car, twenty foot long
If a girl who talked like that was not his dream girl, he didn't know a dream girl when he heard one.
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.
Derived words: African dream herb
age dream
American dream
beyond one's wildest dreams
cheese dream
daydream
dream board
dreamboat
dreambound
dreamcatcher
dream catcher
dreamchild
dream come true
dreamcore
dreamery
dream factory
dream feed
dreamfish
dreamful
dreamgirl
dreamhole
dream home
dream house
dreamish
dreamland
dreamless
dreamlet
dream life
dreamlife
dreamlike
dreamlining
dream list
dreammate
dream pop
dream room
dreamscape
dreamself
dream sequence
dreamsign
dreamsome
dreamster
dream team
dream trance
dream vision
dreamward
dreamware
dreamwork
dreamworker
dreamworld
dreamworthy
dreamwrapt
dreamy
dream yoga
fever dream
foredream
go like a dream
impossible dream
Indian's dream
in one's wildest dreams
interdream
in your dreams
in your wildest dreams
like a dream
live the dream
lucid dream
manic pixie dream girl
nightdream
nondream
pipe dream
teamwork makes the dream work
waking dream
wet dream
work like a dream
dream job
adream
dreamable
dreamer
dream on
dream true
dream up
outdream
overdream
redream
undream
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