DREAMY (dreamier, dreamiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: dreamier    , dreamiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dreamy mean? 

• DREAMY (adjective)
  The adjective DREAMY has 2 senses:

1. dreamy in mood or nature

2. lacking spirit or liveliness

  Familiarity information: DREAMY used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DREAMY (adjective)

Comparative: dreamier   
Superlative: dreamiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Dreamy in mood or nature

Synonyms:

dreamy; moony; woolgathering

Context example:

a woolgathering moment

Similar:

inattentive (showing a lack of attention or care)

Derivation:

dream (a state of mind characterized by abstraction and release from reality)

dream (imaginative thoughts indulged in while awake)

dreaminess (a relaxed comfortable feeling)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Lacking spirit or liveliness

Synonyms:

dreamy; lackadaisical; languid; languorous

Context example:

a hot languorous afternoon

Similar:

lethargic; unenergetic (deficient in alertness or activity)

Derivation:

dreaminess (a relaxed comfortable feeling)

 Context examples 

He seemed floating languidly in a sea of dreamy vision.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Dr. Seward seemed to answer them both in a dreamy kind of way:—I don't know but that I agree with you.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Whatever I had within me that was romantic and dreamy, was encouraged by so much story-telling in the dark; and in that respect the pursuit may not have been very profitable to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Sketches of boxers, of ballet-girls, and of racehorses alternated with a sensuous Fragonard, a martial Girardet, and a dreamy Turner.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

All the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes the sleuth-hound, Holmes the relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was possible to conceive.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I seemed somehow to know her face, and to know it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the moment how or where.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The book slipped from his hands to the ground, and they sat idly and silently, gazing out over the dreamy bay with eyes that dreamed and did not see.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Of my making a speech in the same dreamy fashion, without having an idea of what I want to say, beyond such as may be comprehended in the full conviction that I haven't said it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I slewed round a little, so as to see Lucy well without seeming to stare at her, and saw that she was in a half-dreamy state, with an odd look on her face that I could not quite make out; so I said nothing, but followed her eyes.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It entered into them, dreamy and languorous, weakening the fibres of resolution, suffusing the face of morality, or of judgment, with haze and purple mist. Martin felt tender and melting, and from time to time warm glows passed over him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)