undream

Etymology

From un- + dream.

Why this word is great

UNDREAM — [Verb] To dismiss from the imagination as though never dreamed. From un- ("reverse action") + dream ("imaginary events while sleeping"). Unlike "forget" (which implies a passive loss of memory) or "disregard" (which means to consciously ignore), "undream" is the deliberate unraveling of a vision, the quiet annihilation of what once flickered behind closed eyelids. It is the morning light dissolving a nightmare before it can be spoken, the childhood fantasy of flight left crumpled in a drawer, or the lover’s face fading from memory before dawn—the mind’s silent rebellion against the tyranny of what might have been.

verb

To dismiss from the imagination as though never dreamed.“Dreams, whether waking or sleeping ones, continue part of us. We can't undream them. We are roused out of them, but they remain.”