to dream big
15
3.4
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
soñar a lo grande
- As we establish parameters for the new system, let us dream big.
- students to dream big
Start small, dream big, move fast, right?
- Start small, dream big, move fast, right?
- So whatever your big idea is, start small, dream big, act small.
- And my final point is dare to dream big for yourself.
- She told me to go big, to dream big, and that I could accomplish anything I wanted to.
- And so, yes, dream big, know what it is, and then shelf it and then reverse engineer it back to step one.
- I'm asking you to dream big because with your vote, we are just one day away from the change you've been waiting for your entire life.
- Go ahead and dream big in a way, lying to yourself, but then get down to business and fight like hell.
- Yeah, well, we had dreamed big our whole lives.
Examples
-
To achieve the kind of success that you want, you need to dream big.
Blog text (1) -
Well, step one is you dream big, but you act small.
-
It's time to dream big again, and three ways to get started.
-
It's good to dream big.
-
If you dream, dream big.
-
We owe it to our future students to dream big.
Academic text (2016) -
You have pushed me in so many ways to dream big, and I will be forever grateful.
Blog text (33) -
Well, if you're gonna dream, dream big.
-
I don't know where we'll be in a year's time, but like you say, we're dreaming big!
Blog text (9) -
You should always dream big if you want to achieve great things in life.
Synonyms
106
4.1
To want very much to achieve an important goal
5
3.9
Try to reach very difficult goals
4
4.9
To try to achieve very big goals
3
7.1
To try to do very big or difficult things to get what you want
2
4.7
Try to reach a very high and difficult goal
Antonyms
- Informal
1
6.9
Choose smaller goals that are easier to reach when big ones feel impossible
How Ambitious
- Informal
2
4.7
- Informal
15
3.4
5
3.9
106
4.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to have ambitious goals' is directly derivable from combining 'dream' (an aspiration) with 'big' (large/major); the construction simply means to have large/ambitious dreams. This compositional pattern (verb + adjective modifying scope) is common and has clear parallels in other languages, so a B1 learner who knows the words will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Dream big paints a picture of someone whose dream is very big, like lying in bed and seeing huge, exciting plans for the future. That's why Dream big means 'to have very big goals'.