Dictionary

reverie en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈɹɛvəɹi/
• (US) audio
• rĕʹvə-rē

Etymology

Borrowed from French rêverie.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A state of dreaming while awake; a loose or irregular train of thought; musing or meditation; daydream.
   • We were bound for eternity / Now I am lost inside this everlasting reverie / And I'm losing my mind 2019, YOHIO, “My Nocturnal Serenade”, in A Pretty Picture In A Most Disturbing Way:
   • Within the branching shade of Reverie / Dreams even may spring till autumn; yet none be / ⁠Like woman's budding day-dream spirit-fann'd. 1899, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “The Day-Dream”, in Pictures & poems:
   • Even the blithely unselfconscious Homer is more than a little freaked out by West’s private reverie, and encourages his spawn to move slowly away without making eye contact with the crazy man. 2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
   • Your reverie is over: nothing bright can last, not even dreams; and so your figures are all gone, your fairy realm obliterated - nothing lives but the recollection of a shadow! 1854, John Esten Cooke, The Youth of Jefferson, Or, A Chronicle of College Scrapes at Williamsburg, in Virginia, A.D. 1764, page 129:
   • If you rouse from your reverie, you are restless and agitated; your eye wanders round in one perpetual search; and if, perchance, as has happened once or twice, he has only passed in the distance, your eye brightens, your cheek flushes crimson, and your whole frame quivers with uncontrollable emotion! 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Conversation after Breakfast”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 77:
   • we sat / But spoke not, rapt in nameless reverie, […] 1847, Alfred Tennyson, The Princess, Canto VII, lines 107-108:
   • He fell into a reverie, a most dangerous state of mind for a chauffeur, since a fall into reverie on the part of a driver may mean a fall into a ravine on the part of the machine. 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 3, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
2. (countable, uncountable) An extravagant conceit of the imagination; a vision.
   • If the minds of men were laid open, we should see but little difference between that of the wise man and that of the fool; There are infinite reveries , numberless extravagancies , and a perpetual train of vanities , which pass through both . November 17, 1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator No. 225

Forms

Deriveds

reverize · reverist

Synonyms

castle in the air · daydreaming · castle in the skies · oneirism · castles in Spain · daydream

Translations (33)

id lamunan (state of dreaming while awake) · de Fantasie (conceit of imagination) · cs zasnění se (state of dreaming while awake) · hu ábránd (state of dreaming while awake) · bg мечтание (conceit of imagination) · mi wawata (state of dreaming while awake) · es fantasía (conceit of imagination) · cs snění (state of dreaming while awake) · nl mijmering (state of dreaming while awake) · mk зами́сленост (state of dreaming while awake) · pl sen na jawie (conceit of imagination) · ru грёзы (state of dreaming while awake) · bg бленуване (state of dreaming while awake) · it sogno ad occhi aperti (state of dreaming while awake) · mk сону́вање (state of dreaming while awake) · ka ზმანება (state of dreaming while awake) · de Träumerei (conceit of imagination) · it sogno ad occhi aperti (conceit of imagination) · ka ოცნება (state of dreaming while awake) · fi unelmointi (state of dreaming while awake) · fi haaveilu (state of dreaming while awake) · de Tagtraum (state of dreaming while awake) · cs snění za bílého dne (state of dreaming while awake) · da dagdrøm (state of dreaming while awake) · sh sanjarenje (state of dreaming while awake) · fr rêverie (state of dreaming while awake) · mk мечта́ење (conceit of imagination) · pt devaneio (state of dreaming while awake) · fi päiväuni (conceit of imagination) · ru забытьё (state of dreaming while awake) · nl dagdroom (state of dreaming while awake) · pl sen na jawie (state of dreaming while awake) · it fantasticheria (conceit of imagination)

reverie en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈɹɛvəɹi/
• (US) audio
• rĕʹvə-rē

Etymology

Borrowed from French rêverie.

Meanings

1. (intransitive) To daydream.
   • By this time the mouth begins to feel uneasy—I pick another cheroot from Cotton’s last box, and walk up and down reverie-ing as before. 1832 October, [John Gibson Lockhart], “Noctes Ambrosianae. No. LXIII.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXXII, number CC, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], page 694:
   • He reveried on. 1980, Peter Van Greenaway, The Dissident: A Novel (Gollancz Suspense), London: Gollancz, →ISBN:
   • So now the dream of all my life is realized, and I have seen snow mountains! When I was quite a little child of eight years old I used to reverie about them, and when I heard the name of the snow-covered Sierra de la Summa Paz (perfect peace) the idea was completed; and I thenceforth always thought of eternal snow and perfect peace together, and longed to see the one and drink in the other. 1869 June 12, Frances Ridley Havergal, “(1861—1869.) […]”, in M[aria] V[ernon] G[raham] H[avergal], editor, Memorials of Frances Ridley Havergal, London: James Nisbet & Co., […], published 1880, pages 97–98:
   • In her old days she’ll either be Madame Representativewoman from the same said X-town, or a cheerful old philanderer, pardon me, I mean philanthropist, living in seclusion and reverying in the shades of the past. 1936 March, Elmer D. Johnson, “Soliloquy on a Forgotten Town: What Will Become of It?”, in Charles A. Poe, editor, The Carolina Magazine, volume LXV, number 6, Chapel Hill, N.C.: Publications Union Board of the University of North Carolina, page twenty-seven, column 1:
   • During my twelfth and thirteenth years I often reveried in school, or less often at night, with penis quite erect—imagining perhaps myself in company with several of the girls that most attracted me on a Pacific Island, and I would feel and see myself again and again in sexual intercourse. 1920, W[alter] F[ranklin] Robie, “A Sexual Autobiography”, in Sex and Life: What the Experienced Should Teach and What the Inexperienced Should Learn, Boston, Mass.: Richard G[orham] Badger, The Gorham Press, part I, section “Love Reverie and Sex Imagery; Sex Education”, page 70:

Forms

Relateds

build castles in the air · woolgather

reverie en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈɹɛvəɹi/
• (US) audio
• rĕʹvə-rē

Etymology

From Middle French reverie (“revelry, drunkenness”), from Old French resverie, from resver (“to dream, to rave”), of uncertain origin. Compare rave.

Meanings

1. (archaic) A caper, a frolic; merriment.

Forms