Also called: alchera. alcheringa. (in the mythology of Australian Aboriginal peoples) a mythical Golden Age of the past
informal any remote period, out of touch with the actualities of the present
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s a meditation on the psychic effects of motherland dreamtime: “Darker the berry, sweeter the fruit/ Deeper the wounded, deeper the roots/ Nubian doused in brown, I’m loungin’ in it.
From Slate ● Jul. 19, 2019
Nango's tale was more than an aboriginal "dreamtime" story.
From Science Magazine ● Jul. 19, 2017
She’s trying to make a point about downtime as dreamtime, a mode of passive-resistant creativity in an era of frantic, art fair-directed production.
From New York Times ● May 22, 2017
They inspired me to lean down to read the message etched below the statue that so many have come to associate with Duane’s lucid dreamtime story.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 30, 2016
Youth be bearer Soon of hardihood; Life be fairer, Loyaller to good; Till the far lamps vanish into light, Rest in the dreamtime.
From The Hill A Romance of Friendship by Vachell, Horace Annesley
Watkins, the dental anesthesiologist, has more than 20 years of experience administering general anesthesia to children and owns Dreamtime Dentistry, according to the news release.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
To be honest, flying on a swan through Dreamtime is positively vanilla compared with some of the stuff that goes on here at 5am on Monday morning.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 26, 2020
Just look at Joe Hill and Angie Perry-Mansell, the couple behind Dreamtime Bakehouse and Grow Tours, Darwin-based businesses that have a flavor all their own.
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2018
His Aboriginal Dreamtime paintings accrue from thousands of delicate concentric lines into undulant, intensely optical expressions that are topographical, abstract and beyond category.
From New York Times ● Oct. 22, 2015
We can weave common myths such as the biblical creation story, the Dreamtime myths of Aboriginal Australians, and the nationalist myths of modern states.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
