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Synonyms

dream up

British  

verb

  1. (tr, adverb) to invent by ingenuity and imagination

    to dream up an excuse for leaving
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
dream up Idioms  

  1. 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]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Bopping to and from recording studios is exactly the type of lifestyle Barrera always dreamed up.

From Los Angeles Times

Never mind that it was said to have been dreamed up by kids at a soda fountain that Short frequented and referred mainly to her upswept hairdo.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Are you kidding? It’s a kid’s dream up here!”

From Literature

You can see cool visual responses when asking for sports scores and other queries, and use the image generator Nano Banana and video maker Veo to remix your own media or dream up new visions.

From The Wall Street Journal

Boaz, as a rule, did not dream up ghosts where there were none.

From Literature

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.