i ‧ ma ‧ gine S1 W2 /ɪˈmædʒən, ɪˈmædʒɪn/ BrE AmE verb [transitive]
[ Word Family: adjective : ↑ imaginable ≠ ↑ unimaginable , ↑ imaginary , ↑ imaginative ≠ ↑ unimaginative , ↑ unimagined ; noun : ↑ imagination , ↑ imaginings ; adverb : ↑ unimaginably , ↑ imaginatively ; verb : ↑ imagine ]
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: French ; Origin: imaginer , from Latin imaginari , from imago ; ⇨ ↑ image ]
1 . to form a picture or idea in your mind about what something could be like
imagine (that)
Imagine that you have just won a million pounds.
Imagine life without hot water.
imagine what/how/why etc
Can you imagine what it’s like when it’s really hot out here in Delhi?
imagine somebody doing something
She could imagine dark-robed figures moving silently along the stone corridors.
(just) imagine doing something
Imagine doing a horrible job like that!
Just imagine going all that way for nothing!
imagine somebody/something as something
He didn’t quite dare to imagine himself as a real artist.
imagine somebody in/with/without etc something
Somehow, I can’t imagine him without a beard.
it’s difficult/easy/possible/impossible etc to imagine something
After such a dry summer, it’s difficult to imagine what rain looks like.
2 . to have a false or wrong idea about something:
Perhaps she’d never really been there at all – perhaps she’d just imagined it.
imagined dangers
imagine (that)
She had imagined that the doctor would be male.
I was surprised when I saw the farm. I had imagined it would be much bigger.
imagine something/somebody to be something
There’s nobody here. You’re just imagining things.
3 . [not in progressive] to think that something is true or may happen, but without being sure or having proof:
‘A very complicated subject, I imagine,’ said Edwin.
imagine (that)
You are obviously tired and I imagine that nothing would make you admit it.
4 . you can/can’t imagine something British English spoken used to emphasize how good, bad etc something is
You can/can’t imagine how/what/why etc
You can imagine how angry I was!
You can’t imagine what a terrible week we had.
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COLLOCATIONS (for Meaning 1 )
■ phrases
▪ be easy to imagine
It’s easy to imagine how the change in the law caused a lot of confusion.
▪ be hard/difficult to imagine
It’s hard to imagine the suffering she must have gone through.
▪ can easily imagine
I can easily imagine how frightening the accident must have been.
▪ can well imagine (=can easily imagine)
I can well imagine how delighted you were with the news.
▪ can hardly/scarcely imagine (=find it difficult to imagine)
He could scarcely imagine what living in such poor conditions must have been like.
▪ can’t/couldn’t imagine
He couldn’t imagine life without his wife.
▪ what somebody had imagined (=what someone thought something would be like, before they saw it or experienced it)
The office was not what he had imagined.
▪ be bigger/smaller/worse etc than you had imagined
The job interview proved to be much worse than I had imagined it would be.
▪ let us imagine … (=used to encourage someone else to think about a possibility)
Let us imagine that you are an employer who wants to recruit some new staff.
▪ somebody is imagining things (=someone has a false or wrong idea about something)
She’s imagining things if she thinks she has a chance of winning the prize.
■ adverbs
▪ naively imagine (=to imagine something without realizing how complicated the situation is)
She had naively imagined that marriage would solve all her problems.
▪ fondly imagine (=to believe something that is untrue)
He had fondly imagined that she was in love with him.
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THESAURUS
▪ imagine to form a picture or idea in your mind about what something might be like:
When I think of Honolulu, I imagine long white beaches and palm trees.
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I can’t really imagine being a millionaire.
▪ visualize to form a picture of someone or something in your mind, especially something that is definitely going to happen or exist in the future:
Anna visualized meeting Greg again at the airport.
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The finished house may be hard to visualize.
▪ picture to form a clear picture of something or someone in your mind:
I can still picture my father, even though he died a long time ago.
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The town was just how she had pictured it from his description.
▪ envisage /ɪnˈvɪzɪdʒ/ especially British English , envision to imagine something as possible or likely to happen in the future:
How do you envisage your career developing over the next ten years?
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They had envisioned the creation of a single armed force, small but efficient.
▪ conceive of something formal to imagine a situation, especially one that is difficult to imagine:
For many people, music is so important that they cannot conceive of life without it.
▪ fantasize to imagine something exciting that you would like to happen, but that is very unlikely to happen:
I used to fantasize about becoming a film star.
▪ daydream to imagine pleasant things, so that you forget where you are and what you should be doing:
Mark began to daydream, and didn’t even hear the teacher’s question.
▪ hallucinate to imagine that you are seeing things that are not really there, especially because you are ill or have taken drugs:
The drug that can cause some people to hallucinate.
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When I saw the walls moving, I thought I must be hallucinating.