dream up
Conjure from nothing
To dream up something is to invent or imagine it, especially something creative, fanciful, or impractical: Who dreamed up this scheme?
The phrase suggests ideas emerging from imagination rather than careful planning—sometimes brilliantly inventive, sometimes half-baked: She dreamed up a new marketing campaign overnight.
- concoctInvent or devise
- inventCreate something new
- contriveCreate through artifice
- deviseCreate through ingenuity
- conjureSummon by supernatural means
out of thin air · envision · conceive · hatch · ideate · hypothesize · imagine · fantasize · flights of fancy · come up with · originate · innovate · blue sky thinking · formulate · create · brainstorm · spin a yarn · mythologize