ROGET'S THESAURUS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND PHRASES ...

give play, give the reins, give a loose to the imagination, give fancy; indulge in
reverie.
visualize, envision, conjure up a vision; fancy oneself, represent oneself, picture,
picture-oneself, figure to oneself; vorstellen [G.].
float in the mind; suggest itself &c (thought) 451.
Adj. imagined &c v.; ben trovato [It]; air drawn, airbuilt † .
imagining &c v., imaginative; original, inventive, creative, fertile.
romantic, high flown, flighty, extravagant, fanatic, enthusiastic, unrealistic, Utopian,
Quixotic.
ideal, unreal; in the clouds, in nubibus [Lat.]; unsubsantial † &c 4; illusory &c
(fallacious) 495.
fabulous, legendary; mythical, mythic, mythological; chimerical; imaginary,
visionary; notional; fancy, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical † ; whimsical; fairy, fairy-like;
gestic † .
Phr. a change came o'er the spirit of my dream [Byron]; aegri somnia vana [Lat.];
dolphinum appingit sylvis in fluctibus aprum [Horace]; fancy light from fancy caught
[Tennyson]; imagination rules the world [Napoleon]; l'imagination gallope [Fr.], le
jugement ne va que le pas [Fr.]; musaeo contingens cuncta lepore [Lat.] [Lucretius]; tous
songes sont mensonges [Fr.]; Wahrheil und Dichtung [G.].
DIVISION II
COMMUNICATION OF IDEAS
SECTION I.
NATURE OF IDEAS COMMUNICATED
516. [Idea to be conveyed.] Meaning [Thing signified.] -- N. meaning; signification,
significance; sense, expression; import, purport; force; drift, tenor, spirit, bearing,
coloring; scope.
[important part of the meaning] substance; gist, essence, marrow, spirit &c 5.
matter; subject, subject matter; argument, text, sum and substance.
general meaning, broad meaning, substantial meaning, colloquial meaning, literal
meaning, plain meaning, simple meaning, natural meaning, unstrained meaning, true
meaning, &c (exact) 494 honest meaning, &c 543 prima facie meaning [Lat.]; &c
(manifest) 525.
letter of the law.
literally; after acceptation.
synonym; implication, allusion &c (latency) 526; suggestion &c (information) 527;
figure of speech &c 521; acceptation &c (interpretation) 522.
V. mean, signify, express; import, purport; convey, imply, breathe, indicate, bespeak,
bear a sense; tell of, speak of; touch on; point to, allude to; drive at; involve &c (latency)
526; declare &c (affirm) 535.
understand by &c (interpret) 522.
Adj. meaning &c v.; expressive, suggestive, allusive; significant, significative † ,
significatory † ; pithy; full of meaning, pregnant with meaning.
declaratory &c 535; intelligible &c 518; literal; synonymous; tantamount &c
(equivalent) 27; implied &c (latent) 526; explicit &c 525.