I. day ‧ dream 1 /ˈdeɪdriːm/ BrE AmE verb [intransitive]
to think about something pleasant, especially when this makes you forget what you should be doing ⇨ dream
daydream about
What are you daydreaming about? There’s work to be done.
—daydreamer noun [countable]
• • •
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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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?
|
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.
|
When I saw the walls moving, I thought I must be hallucinating.
II. daydream 2 BrE AmE noun [countable]
pleasant thoughts you have while you are awake that make you forget what you are doing ⇨ dream
• • •
THESAURUS
■ when you are sleeping
▪ dream the thoughts, images, and feelings that go through your mind while you are asleep:
I had a strange dream last night -- you and I were in some sort of forest.
▪ nightmare a very unpleasant and frightening dream:
She still has terrible nightmares about the accident.
▪ daydream a series of pleasant thoughts that go through your mind when you are awake, so that you do not notice what is happening around you:
Neil was in a daydream, and didn’t hear the teacher call his name.
▪ reverie formal a state of imagining or thinking about pleasant things, that is like dreaming:
The doorbell rang, shaking her from her reverie.