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dream up

[dreem] Origin

dream

[dreem] noun, verb, dreamed or dreamt, dream·ing, adjective
noun
1.
a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.
2.
the sleeping state in which this occurs.
3.
an object seen in a dream.
4.
an involuntary vision occurring to a person when awake.
5.
a vision voluntarily indulged in while awake; daydream; reverie.
EXPAND
6.
an aspiration; goal; aim: A trip to Europe is his dream.
7.
a wild or vain fancy.
8.
something of an unreal beauty, charm, or excellence.
COLLAPSE
verb (used without object)
9.
to have a dream.
10.
to indulge in daydreams or reveries: He dreamed about vacation plans when he should have been working.
11.
to think or conceive of something in a very remote way (usually followed by of): I wouldn't dream of asking them.

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Dream up is always a great word to know.
So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
verb (used with object)
12.
to see or imagine in sleep or in a vision.
13.
to imagine as if in a dream; fancy; suppose.
14.
to pass or spend (time) in dreaming (often followed by away): to dream away the afternoon.
adjective
15.
most desirable; ideal: a dream vacation.
16.
dream up, to form in the imagination; devise: They dreamed up the most impossible plan.

Origin:
1200–50; Middle English dreem, Old English drēam joy, mirth, gladness, cognate with Old Saxon drōm mirth, dream, Old Norse draumr, Old High German troum dream; modern sense first recorded in ME but presumably also current in Old English, as in Old Saxon

dream·ful, adjective
dream·ful·ly, adverb
dream·ful·ness, noun
dream·ing·ly, adverb
dream·like, adjective
EXPAND
re·dream, verb, re·dreamed or re·dreamt, re·dream·ing.
un·dreamed, adjective
un·dream·ing, adjective
un·dream·like, adjective
COLLAPSE


1. Dream, nightmare, and vision refer to the kinds of mental images that form during sleep. Dream is the general term for any such succession of images. A nightmare is a dream that brings fear or anxiety: frightened by a nightmare. Vision refers to a series of images of unusual vividness, clarity, order, and significance, sometimes seen in a dream.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
dream up
 
vb
(tr, adverb) to invent by ingenuity and imagination: to dream up an excuse for leaving

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

dream
mid-13c. in the sense "sequence of sensations passing through a sleeping person's mind" (also as a verb), probably related to O.N. draumr, Dan. drøm, Swed. drom, O.S. drom, Du. droom, O.H.G. troum, Ger. traum "dream," perhaps from W.Gmc. *draugmas "deception, illusion, phantasm" (cf. O.S. bidriogan,
EXPAND
O.H.G. triogan, Ger. trügen "to deceive, delude," O.N. draugr "ghost, apparition"). Possible cognates outside Gmc. are Skt. druh- "seek to harm, injure," Avestan druz- "lie, deceive." But O.E. dream meant only "joy, mirth," also "music." Words for "sleeping vision" in O.E. were mæting and swefn (from PIE *swep-no-; cf. Gk. hypnos). Much study has failed to prove that O.E. dream "noisy merriment" 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 O.E. meaning of dream, or there are two separate words here. "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" [OED]. Dream in the sense of "ideal or aspiration" is from 1931, from earlier sense of "something of dream-like beauty or charm" (1888). Related: Dreamed; dreaming.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

dream (drēm)
n.
A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

dream up

Invent, concoct, as in Count on her to dream up some explanation for her absence. This expression replaced the somewhat earlier dream out. [c. 1940]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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