dream, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dream n.¹

1. a very attractive, charming, personable individual.

1896		Ade Artie (1963) 19: She’s a dream.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 12: She’s a peach – a dream.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 235: Say, he’s a dream — that guy.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 177: She’s a dream!
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 329: Look a proper dream, you will, with a flower stuck in your bonnet, and no drawers on.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 76: I shook my head and he bobbed his white thatch, right then a dream walked in [...] She was slim and quite tall.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 123: A Polynesian-type dream took our ‘bennys’.
1993		A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 55: You’re a dream all right. You should see how you look.

2. someone or something exceptional, remarkable; often in ironic use.

1890		Sporting Times 3 May 3/1: Only, when you do put on tights that are simply a dream, Blanche, what’s the use of not showing them?
1905		N. Gale ‘Net Practice’ in More Cricket Songs 60: We had a fellow in the School / Whose batting simply was a dream: / A dozen times by keeping cool / And hitting hard he saved the Team.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 192: The hat was a dream.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 249: The Consulship at Comato was a Dream of a Job.
1950		(con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 72: My new dress is a dream, Bill!
1961		C. Himes Pinktoes (1989) 29: Oh, honey, it’s [i.e. a dress] perfectly stunning, a dream.
1968		N. Giovanni ‘A Revolutionary Tale’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 24: I call the people and they clean and service it – that’s it. It’s a dream.
1999		Guardian G2 28 May 7: He was a complete dream to work with.

3. an expert.

1912

A.H. Lewis Apaches of N.Y. 219: It’ll be a gun-fight, an’ he’s a dream wit’ a gatt.

dreamboat (n.)

see separate entry.

dream book (n.)

a book purporting to forecast by dreams winning numbers in policy gambling.

1872		J.D. McCabe Lights & Shadows 729: The negroes are most inveterate policy players. They are firm believers in dreams and dream books. Every dream has a corresponding number set down in the books.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 28: He knew all the dream books by heart, the Chinaman in the Daily News; he knew just when to lay off on certain numbers.

dreambox (n.)

(US black) the head.

1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 222: Verbal expressions which imply that the subject is not wholly in his right mind, [...] ‘He is dippy in the dream-box’.
1936		Western Champion (Qld) 12 Dec. 3/3: Me old dream-box ’s feelin’ just the thing.
1942		R.L. Bellem ‘Color of Murder’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 O’Connell gasped and went sprawling with a slug through his dream-box.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 190: My dreambox kept spinning in circles.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

dream puss (n.) [puss n.² (2)]

(US campus) the idealized young woman; also attrib.

1945		Amer. N&Q Aug. 70: The attractive girl is a ‘slick chick,’ a ‘rare dish,’ a ‘dream puss.’ [HDAS].
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
2004		‘Desdemona’ Rough Cut Ch. iii: 🌐 Kitty Winslow had a dream-puss face, no doubt about it – big doe eyes, bee-stung lips, and baby soft skin. But it was her chassis that made her a real oomph girl, and Kitty Winslow didn’t mind displaying that chassis.