Definition of: dream

(drēm) noun
1. A train of thoughts or images passing through the mind in sleep.
2. A mental condition similar to that of one sleeping; abstracted imagining; daydreaming.
3. A visionary idea, anticipation, or fancy; also, anything real having a dreamlike quality.
4. Psychoanal. A medium for the expression during sleep of various aspects of the ego and superego typically withdrawn from consciousness but, when recorded and analyzed, having some value in the diagnosis, interpretation, and treatment of certain maladjustments of the personality.
—v. dreamed or dreamt (dremt), dream·ing v.t.
1. To see or imagine in a dream.
2. To imagine or envision as in a dream.
3. To while away, as in idle reverie.
—v.i.
4. To have a dream or dreams.
5. To have a vague idea or conception of something.
—to dream up Colloq. To concoct or create, especially by artistic invention or unbridled fancy. See synonyms under MUSE. [OE drēam; infl. in meaning by ON draum a dream]
—dream′ful adjective
—dream′ful·ly adverb
—dream′·less adjective
—dream′less·ly adverb Synonyms (noun): daydream, fancy, fantasy, hallucination, illusion, reverie, romance, trance, vision. A dream is strictly a train of thoughts, fantasies, and images passing through the mind during sleep; a vision may occur when one is awake and in clear exercise of the senses and mental powers; vision is often applied to something seen by the mind through supernatural agency, whether in sleep or wakefulness, conceived as more real and authoritative than a dream; a trance is an abnormal state, which is different from normal sleep or wakefulness. A reverie is a purposeless drifting of the mind when awake, under the influence of mental images; a daydream that which passes before the mind in such condition. A fancy is some image presented to the mind, often in the fullest exercise of its powers. Hallucination is the seeming perception of non–existent objects, as in insanity or delirium. In the figurative sense, we speak of dreams of fortune, visions of glory, with little difference of meaning except that the vision is thought of as fuller and more vivid. We speak of a trance of delight when the emotion almost sweeps one away from the normal exercise of the faculties. Compare DELUSION. Antonyms: certainty, fact, reality, realization, substance, verity.