Living the dream is an idiom that probably originated in the United States. We will examine the meaning of the common idiom living the dream, where it came from, and some examples of its idiomatic usage in sentences.
Living the dream means that someone is living his best life; that he is achieving the goals he wants to achieve; that he has all the material comforts and/or relationships that he wants to have. The expression living the dream came into use at the end of the twentieth century and is presumed to reference the American Dream, which is the belief that prosperity, freedom, and success is available to all who work hard in the United States. Living the dream is an idiom that is sometimes used sarcastically, to mean that one is not actually living ideally.
Examples
Author Karen Perry on living the dream on a six-month sabbatical in France: ‘Life settled into a new and slower rhythm’ (Independent)
Bryson DeBerry is living the dream, one that a few short years ago didn’t seem like a possibility. (Plainview Herald)
‘King-Cat’ cartoonist John Porcellino says he is living the dream in Beloit. His dream, anyway. (Chicago Tribune)
Here are other idioms we covered: