Definition of "dream"

Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes.

1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.

1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter II, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915

And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had

1982, “Mad World”, in Roland Orzabal (lyrics), The Hurting, performed by Tears for Fears

So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

1963 August 28, Martin Luther King, I have a Dream‎

Ralph Wiggum is generally employed as a bottomless fount of glorious non sequiturs, but in “I Love Lisa” he stands in for every oblivious chump who ever deluded himself into thinking that with persistence, determination, and a pure heart he can win the girl of his dreams.

2012 August 5, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “I Love Lisa” (season 4, episode 15; originally aired 02/11/1993)”, in AV Club

There sober thought pursued the amusing theme, Till Fancy coloured it and formed a dream.

c. 1735, Alexander Pope, John Donne's Satires Versified

It is not, then, a mere dream, but a very real aim which they propose.

1870, John Shairp, Culture and Religion

Dreaming when Dawn's Left Hand was in the SkyI heard a Voice within the Tavern cry,"Awake, my Little ones, and fill the CupBefore Life's Liquor in its Cup be dry."

1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 1

And still they dream that they shall still succeed.

1782–1785, William Cowper, “(please specify the page)”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […]

At length in sleep their bodies they compose, / And dreamt the future fight, and early rose.

1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene v], lines 167-8

But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window […], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them.

1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]

If a girl who talked like that was not his dream girl, he didn't know a dream girl when he heard one.

2014, P.G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit and Other Stories, Random House, page 158

England found chances a rarity, although Liverpool striker Solanke almost made it a dream debut in the closing seconds, only to miscontrol at the far post.

2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-0 Brazil”, in BBC News‎