Synonyms for dreaming

Grammar : Adj

Spell : dreem

Phonetic Transcription : drim

Définition of dreaming

Origin : mid-13c. in the sense "sequence of sensations passing through a sleeping person's mind" (also as a verb), probably related to Old Norse draumr, Danish drøm, Swedish dröm, Old Saxon drom "merriment, noise," Old Frisian dram "dream," Dutch droom, Old High German troum, German traum "dream," perhaps from West Germanic *draugmas "deception, illusion, phantasm" (cf. Old Saxon bidriogan, Old High German triogan, German trügen "to deceive, delude," Old Norse draugr "ghost, apparition"). Possible cognates outside Germanic are Sanskrit druh- "seek to harm, injure," Avestan druz- "lie, deceive."
But Old English dream meant only "joy, mirth, noisy merriment," also "music." And much study has failed to prove that Old English dream is the root of the modern word for "sleeping vision," despite being identical in spelling. Either the meaning of the word changed dramatically or "vision" was an unrecorded secondary Old English meaning of dream, or there are two separate words here. OED offers this theory: "It seems as if the presence of dream 'joy, mirth, music,' had caused dream 'dream' to be avoided, at least in literature, and swefn, lit. 'sleep,' to be substituted" ....
Words for "sleeping vision" in Old English were mæting and swefn. Old English swefn originally meant "sleep," as did a great many Indo-European "dream" nouns, e.g. Lithuanian sapnas, Old Church Slavonic sunu, and the Romanic words (French songe, Spanish sueño, Italian sogno all from Latin somnium (from PIE *swep-no-; cognate with Greek hypnos; see somnolence; Old English swefn is from the same root). Dream in the sense of "ideal or aspiration" is from 1931, from earlier sense of "something of dream-like beauty or charm" (1888).

adj musing

Example sentences :

Percival watched the decline with a conviction that he was dreaming.
Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson

He made our dreaming: shall it surpass in its making his mighty self?
Extract from : « Weighed and Wanting » by George MacDonald

But there has been no mistake; I have not been dreaming unless I am dreaming now.
Extract from : « The Bacillus of Beauty » by Harriet Stark

Too happy—I almost fear to wake and find that I've been dreaming.
Extract from : « Thoroughbreds » by W. A. Fraser

I must be dreaming—No, wait; please don't tell me what it all means just yet!
Extract from : « Quaint Courtships » by Various

Dreaming wanes into sentimentalism, and sentimentalism is fatal to action.
Extract from : « The Call of the Twentieth Century » by David Starr Jordan

"My love, you have been dreaming frightfully," said Mrs. Ormond.
Extract from : « Tales And Novels, Volume 3 (of 10) » by Maria Edgeworth

"You may have known me as Ahmed Antoun," said the wretch, not dreaming of that slip he had made.
Extract from : « It Happened in Egypt » by C. N. Williamson

What had we all been dreaming of when we let this beautiful girl run into danger?
Extract from : « It Happened in Egypt » by C. N. Williamson

And the fancy was this: Are not the sane and the insane equal at night as the sane lie a dreaming?
Extract from : « The Uncommercial Traveller » by Charles Dickens

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Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019