n. & v.
n. 1 a a series of pictures or events in the mind of a sleeping person. b the act or time of seeing this. c (in full waking dream) a similar experience of one awake. 2 a day-dream or fantasy. 3 an ideal, aspiration, or ambition, esp. of a nation. 4 a beautiful or ideal person or thing. 5 a state of mind without proper perception of reality (goes about in a dream).
v. (past and past part. dreamt or dreamed) 1 intr. experience a dream. 2 tr. imagine in or as if in a dream. 3 (usu. with neg.) a intr. (foll. by of) contemplate the possibility of, have any conception or intention of (would not dream of upsetting them). b tr. (often foll. by that + clause) think of as a possibility (never dreamt that he would come). 4 tr. (foll. by away) spend (time) unprofitably. 5 intr. be inactive or unpractical. 6 intr. fall into a reverie. dream-time Austral. the alcheringa. dream up imagine, invent. like a dream colloq. easily, effortlessly. dreamful adj. dreamless adj. dreamlike adj.
[ ME f. OE dream joy, music ]