reverie
/ˈɹɛvəɹi/
reverie noun: a state of dreaming while awake; a loose or irregular train of thought; musing or meditation; daydream.
Noun (1)
reverie (countable and uncountable, plural reveries)
- A state of dreaming while awake; a loose or irregular train of thought; musing or meditation; daydream.
- 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...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
- Synonyms:
- castles in Spain, castle in the air, castle in the skies, daydream, daydreaming, oneirism
- 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
Verb
reverie (third-person singular simple present reveries, present participle reverying, simple past and past participle reveried)
- 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
- 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...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...
Noun (2)
reverie (plural reveries)
reverie meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
reverie in Tamil
- பகற்கனவு, சிந்தனையில் ஆழ்ந்திருத்தல்
reverie in Urdu
- reverie
- ادھیڑ بن udheṛ bun
reverie in Bengali
- স্বপ্নময় চিন্তা, কল্পনা
reverie in Malayalam
- ദിവാസ്വപ്നം, മനോരാജ്യം, മിഥ്യാഭാവന
More languagesFewer languages
- reverie in Kannada
- ಹಗಲುಗನಸಿನ ಸ್ಥಿತಿ, ಅನ್ಯಮನಸ್ಕತೆ, ಆಲೋಚನಾಮಗ್ನತೆ, ಭಾವನಾಮಗ್ನತೆ
- reverie in Indonesian
- lamunan
Examples of reverie in a sentence
- 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:
- 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:
- 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:
- 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...
Synonyms of reverie
Forms of reverie
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | reveries |
| alternative form | rêverie |
| alternative form | revery |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | reveries |
| present participle | reverying |
| past participle | reveried |
| past | reveried |
Origin of reverie
Borrowed from French rêverie.
From Middle French reverie (“revelry, drunkenness”), from Old French resverie, from resver (“to dream, to rave”), of uncertain origin. Compare rave.
Words formed from reverie
Questions about reverie
- What does reverie mean?
- Reverie means a state of dreaming while awake; a loose or irregular train of thought; musing or meditation; daydream.
- What is reverie in Tamil?
- Reverie in Tamil is பகற்கனவு, சிந்தனையில் ஆழ்ந்திருத்தல். See Reverie meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use reverie in a sentence?
- 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!
- What part of speech is reverie?
- Reverie can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce reverie?
- Reverie is pronounced /ˈɹɛvəɹi/.
- What is the plural of reverie?
- The plural of reverie is reveries.
Words near reverie in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reverie (page history and authors); reverie (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ادھیڑ بن (Urdu) (page history and authors); reverie (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reverie (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reverie (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-reverie.ogg.
Cite this entry: “reverie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reverie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.