Dictionary

dreamlike en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˈdɹimlaɪk/ (US)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰrewgʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Germanic *draumaz Proto-West Germanic *draum Old English drēam Middle English drem English dream Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-West Germanic *-līk Old English -līċ Middle English -like English -like English dreamlike From dream + -like.

Meanings

1. Like something from a dream; having a sense of vagueness, insubstantiality, or incongruousness.
   • Even when the legend is of an actual historical personage, the deeds of victory are rendered, not in lifelike, but in dreamlike figurations; for the point is not that such-and-such was done on earth; the point is that, before such-and-such could be done on earth, this other, more important, primary thing had to be brought to pass within the labyrinth that we all know and visit in our dreams. 1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 29:
   • The scene, suffused with the golden glow of imagination in which the divine mind of Turner steeped and transfigured even the fairest natural landscape, is a dream-like vision of the little woodland lake of Nemi, “Diana's Mirror,” as it was called by the ancients. 1894, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough:
   • Her kiss sent me into a dreamlike state of bliss.

Forms

Deriveds

undreamlike · dreamlikeness

Relateds

fever-dreamlike

Synonyms

oneiric · dreamy · dreamish

Translations (40)

de traumähnlich (like something from a dream) · mi whakamoemoeā (like something from a dream) · de verträumt (like something from a dream) · ro oniric (like something from a dream) · de träumerisch (like something from a dream) · hu álomszerű (like something from a dream) · bg мечтателен (like something from a dream) · bg приказен (like something from a dream) · da drømmeagtig (like something from a dream) · sv drömlik (like something from a dream) · de traumhaft (like something from a dream) · ro de vis (like something from a dream) · mi titoro (like something from a dream) · mr स्वप्नासारखा (like something from a dream) · de versonnen (like something from a dream) · tr rüya gibi (like something from a dream) · el ονειρικός (like something from a dream) · nl droomachtig (like something from a dream) · fi unenomainen (like something from a dream) · eo reva (like something from a dream) · is dreymandi (like something from a dream) · grc ὀνειρώδης (like something from a dream) · tr dalgın (like something from a dream) · fr onirique (like something from a dream) · pl senny (like something from a dream) · bg фантастичен (like something from a dream) · pt onírico (like something from a dream) · ja 夢幻的 (like something from a dream) · fi haaveenomainen (like something from a dream) · cs snový (like something from a dream) · fr rêveur (like something from a dream) · tr hayalperest (like something from a dream) · ru мечта́тельный (like something from a dream) · pl oniryczny (like something from a dream) · tr rüya dolu (like something from a dream) · tr masalsı (like something from a dream) · az xəyali (like something from a dream) · is draumi líkur (like something from a dream) · is draumkenndur (like something from a dream) · ga aislingeach (like something from a dream)