Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A dreamlike musing or fantasy while awake, especially of the fulfillment of wishes or hopes.
  • intransitive verb To have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A reverie; a castle in the air; a visionary fancy, especially of wishes gratified or hopes fulfilled, indulged in when awake; an extravagant conceit of the fancy or imagination.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A vain fancy speculation; a reverie; a castle in the air; unfounded hope.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A spontaneous and fanciful series of thoughts while awake not connected to immediate reality.
  • verb To have such a series of thoughts; to woolgather.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun absentminded dreaming while awake
  • verb have dreamlike musings or fantasies while awake
  • verb have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Here possible hear all about comfort in daydream: bedding

    In Bed with WHO? Roger Sutton 2006

  • I think the subject of the daydream is his evening with this woman ( "the wind in the willows played tea for two"?).

    The WELL: Scarlet Begonias Robert Hunter 2009

  • I like to daydream which is exactly why I look at pictures of the H&H Royal and Miss Cuthbert.

    A Brief Statement of Policy 2008

  • It leaves you absolutely speechless, wondering if you really watched it or it was some kind of daydream that your sick mind came up with?

    Yeti: A Love Story (2006) 2010

  • I know it's not a Browning/write poetry/people wait on you kind of daydream, but honestly, I'm over waiting--and being waited on!

    Control, loss of control, running away and the little things. Elizabeth McClung 2008

  • He had long ago convinced himself that the whole escalator incident had been in his imagination, a kind of daydream, probably the result of the kind of videos he had been watching.

    Piranha to Scurfy & Other Stories Rendell, Ruth 2000

  • It was a strange kind of daydream, because whenever I thought of some Beverly Hills shopkeeper smiling at me I also thought that he was lying, that he really hated me.

    White Butterfly Walter Mosley 1992

  • The same kind of daydream may also be No. 1 among men.

    TIME.com: Top Stories 2011

  • The directors have decided that the best way to describe Craig's psychological malaise is through a series of "daydream" sequences, and each one is more painful than the last.

    Cinematical 2010

  • The right tends to see this as an excuse to stifle criticism while the left calls it "daydream", in the words of China Is Not Happy, that will be ludicrous and futile, let alone to "save the world".

    unknown title 2009

Comments

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  • Do you realize that you never, ever daydream about the present?

    All ordinary daydreaming had its origin in feeling.

    --Jan Cox

    June 6, 2007

  • oroboros, great quote.

    August 20, 2011