Dream Dictionary

In daily life, food is the essence of nourishment, and has similar associations in dreams, although it captures the idea of fulfillment. We dream of food when we are seeking more reward from what we do, or are seeking deeper meaning in our relationships. If you are hungry in a dream, you are exploring what you need. Food and its connections to others or events suggests your hunger for success in this area. If eating is disrupting something you are attempting to do, then you are not finding fulfillment and need to ‘digest’ something to achieve satisfaction.

The different places where you eat can offer clues as to the area of life that is currently under exploration. A kitchen is associated with your upbringing, while restaurants portray social exchanges or public recognition. Food related to work imagery suggests the way you are seeking more reward and fulfillment in your work. Food associated with cars will symbolize your motivation or what you may be doing that is undermining fulfillment for you.

Bread and water represent basic needs, where bread can symbolize the body, and water -the emotions. Bread also has associations with money and when it is toasted, it can represent how you are being 'seasoned' by experience, or the sense that you are 'ready.' Toast can also symbolize a fear of failure or the sense that it is time to go. The nourishment that is taken in by ‘drinking’ is associated with a ‘thirst’ for something describing necessity, luxury and pleasure, like ‘lapping it up’ and ‘drinking it in.’ Milk actually takes the idea of nourishment a little deeper because of its associations with mother and childhood.

Cake or desserts represent enjoyment or becoming more open in the sense of ‘having your cake and eating it too.’ Dreaming of desserts symbolizes a desire to truly enjoy life as in 'icing on the cake' or reward from the sense of receiving one's 'just desserts.' Since desserts are not considered fundamental nourishment and tend to gratify our desires, they have associations with seeking reward, perhaps when considering changing careers or exploring love, and how it can nourish you. Vegetables will have associations with their shapes and colors, often portraying sexual needs and the idea of doing what is good for us. Vegetables that grow beneath the earth, such as carrots, potatoes, onions and radishes often suggest how you are gestating or not actively acknowledging what is growing within. Corn has a special significance because of its association with teeth and ears, signifying increased sensitivity and perception. The carrot is a symbol of ambition, as in going after the ‘carrot.’ Onions have many layers and can portray the intricate layers that need to be peeled way to discover sustenance. At the same time, onions make you cry and can symbolize the need to allow something painful to surface so that you can move to greener pastures. Plants that require that you care for them while growing, suggest that you must prune or nurture your sense of nourishment and fulfillment over time.

Fruit on a Tree presents a type of food, where sustenance is there for you, to be taken from the ‘Tree of Life.’ Apples can represent consequences, or achievement and effort, as something that grows and falls to the earth. Apples and oranges can suggest health associated with their power to heal, although an orange is sometimes odd, since nothing rhymes with orange. Orange is also associated with the color that makes something stand out or requires attention. The lemon can be associated with a sour attitude or missing out on something and feeling jealous. Dreaming of fruit suggests that something exists within your reach and you need only ‘pluck it’ to be more fulfilled. Meat has an association with ‘hunting’ or sexual nourishment, while milk suggests attainment and satisfaction in the sense of ‘the land of milk and honey’ or ‘mother’s milk’ flowing from the breast.