• Dream

    Pronunciation

    • enPR: drÄ“m, IPA: /dɹiːm/
    • GenAm IPA: /dɹim/
    • Rhymes: -iːm

    Origin 1

    From Middle English dreem, possibly from Old English drēam ("joy, pleasure, gladness, delight, mirth, rejoicing, rapture, ecstasy, frenzy, music, musical instrument, harmony, melody, song, singing, jubilation, sound of music"), from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, *draugmaz ("festivity, dream, ghost, hallucination, delusion, deception"), from Proto-Germanic *draugaz ("delusion, mirage, illusion"), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrAugʰ-, *dʰreugʰ- ("to deceive, injure, damage"); meaning influenced 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 drøm, Swedish dröm ("dream"), Icelandic draumur ("dream"). Related also to Old English drēag ("spectre, apparition"), Dutch bedrog ("deception, deceit"), German Trug ("deception, illusion").

    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 “joy” sense, which would account for the common definition in the other Germanic languages, or the derivation may indeed simply be a strange progression from “mirth, joy, musical sound”.

    Online Etymology Dictionary.

    Attested words for “sleeping vision” in Old English were mǣting (Middle English mæte, mēte), from unclear source, and swefn (Modern English sweven), from Proto-Germanic *swefną, from Proto-Indo-European *swepno-, *swep-; compare Ancient Greek ὕπνος (hypnos, "sleep").

    Full definition of dream

    Noun

    dream

    (plural dreams)
    1. Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.
      • John Dryden (1631-1700)Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes.
      • Lord Byron (1788-1824)I had a dream which was not all a dream.
      • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, 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. A hope or wish.
    3. A visionary scheme; a wild conceit; an idle fancy.
      a dream of bliss;  the dream of his youth
      • Alexander Pope (1688-1744)There sober thought pursued the amusing theme,
        Till Fancy coloured it and formed a dream.
      • John Shairp (1819-1885)It is not to them a mere dream, but a very real aim which they propose.

    Synonyms

    • (events experienced whilst asleep) sweven archaic

    Derived terms

    Terms derived from dream (noun)

    Origin 2

    From Middle English dremen, possibly (see above) 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"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrAugʰ-, *dʰreugʰ- ("to deceive, injure, damage"). Cognate with Scots dreme ("to dream"), West Frisian dreame ("to dream"), Dutch dromen ("to dream"), German träumen ("to dream"), Swedish drömma ("to dream, muse"), Icelandic dreyma ("to dream").

    Verb

    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.
      • CowperAnd still they dream that they shall still succeed.
      • DrydenAt 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.
      • 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher Chapter 1, 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.

    Derived terms

    Usage notes

    "Dreamt" is less common in both US and UK English in current usage, though somewhat more prevalent in the UK than in the US. "Drempt" is quite rare, possibly just eye-dialect.

    Anagrams

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