dream up

verb

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

   to dream up an excuse for leaving

Idioms and Phrases

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

The Griffith Park carousel — a “crown jewel” of the park, where Walt Disney first dreamed up Disneyland — is getting a new lease on life just in time for its 2026 centennial.

From Los Angeles Times

Since then, it has awarded grants to a wide range of projects dreamed up by composers and engineers, economists and political thinkers.

From BBC

The Archers straddled those worlds of agriculture and broadcast, with the drama dreamt up as a creative way to inform farmers about new farming methods while entertaining people too.

From BBC

Or make the new ones being dreamed up?

From Los Angeles Times

“We are dreaming up something very very special for you.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• contrive 
• devise 
• hatch 
• invent