DAYDREAM

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does daydream mean? 

• DAYDREAM (noun)
  The noun DAYDREAM has 1 sense:

1. absentminded dreaming while awake

  Familiarity information: DAYDREAM used as a noun is very rare.

• DAYDREAM (verb)
  The verb DAYDREAM has 2 senses:

1. have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy

2. have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake

  Familiarity information: DAYDREAM used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DAYDREAM (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Absentminded dreaming while awake

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

air castle; castle in Spain; castle in the air; daydream; daydreaming; oneirism; reverie; revery

Hypernyms ("daydream" is a kind of...):

dream; dreaming (imaginative thoughts indulged in while awake)

Derivation:

daydream (have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy)

daydream (have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake)

• DAYDREAM (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they daydream    ... he / she / it daydreams   
Past simple: daydreamed   
Past participle: daydreamed   
-ing form: daydreaming   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

daydream; dream; stargaze; woolgather

Hypernyms (to "daydream" is one way to...):

conceive of; envisage; ideate; imagine (form a mental image of something that is not present or that is not the case)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

daydream (absentminded dreaming while awake)

daydreamer (someone who indulges in idle or absentminded daydreaming)

daydreaming (absentminded dreaming while awake)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

daydream; moon

Context example:

She looked out the window, daydreaming

Hypernyms (to "daydream" is one way to...):

idle; laze; slug; stagnate (be idle; exist in a changeless situation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

daydream (absentminded dreaming while awake)

daydreamer (someone who indulges in idle or absentminded daydreaming)

daydreaming (absentminded dreaming while awake)

 Context examples 

Inspirited by this wind of promise, my daydreams become more fervent and vivid.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that daydreaming during meetings isn't necessarily a bad thing.

(Daydreaming Is Good: It Means You're Smart, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

If that sleepy old court could rouse itself, and present in any visible form the daydreams I have had in it about Dora, it would reveal my truth.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date, even before the course of my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Those who reported more frequent daydreaming scored higher on intellectual and creative ability and had more efficient brain systems measured in the MRI machine.

(Daydreaming Is Good: It Means You're Smart, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It is true that I have thought more and that my daydreams are more extended and magnificent, but they want (as the painters call it) keeping; and I greatly need a friend who would have sense enough not to despise me as romantic, and affection enough for me to endeavour to regulate my mind.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I can recollect, indeed, to have speculated, at odd times, on the possibility of my not being taught any more, or cared for any more; and growing up to be a shabby, moody man, lounging an idle life away, about the village; as well as on the feasibility of my getting rid of this picture by going away somewhere, like the hero in a story, to seek my fortune: but these were transient visions, daydreams I sat looking at sometimes, as if they were faintly painted or written on the wall of my room, and which, as they melted away, left the wall blank again.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)