nightmare
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nightmare
- /ˈnaɪt.mɛə/ UK
- /ˈnaɪt.mɛɚ/ US
- [nʌɪʔ.mɛəɹ] US
Where it comes from
From Middle English nyghtmare, from Old English *nihtmare, equivalent to night + mare (“evil spirit believed to afflict a sleeping person”). Cognate with Scots nichtmare and nichtmeer, Dutch nachtmerrie, Middle Low German nachtmār, German Nachtmahr.
noun nightmares · night-mare
- A very unpleasant or frightening dream. I had a nightmare that I tried to run but could neither move nor breathe.
- Any bad, miserable, difficult or terrifying situation or experience that arouses anxiety, terror, agony or great displeasure. Cleaning up after identity theft can be a nightmare of phone calls and letters.
- A demon or monster, thought to plague people while they slept and cause a feeling of suffocation and terror during sleep. It haunted me, however, more than once, like a night-mare.
- A feeling of extreme anxiety or suffocation experienced during sleep; sleep paralysis. The Night-mare generally ſeizes people ſleeping on their backs, and often begins with frightful dreams, which are ſoon ſucceeded by a difficult reſpiration, a violent oppreſſion on the breaſt, and a total privation of voluntary motion.
verb nightmares · nightmaring · nightmared · night-mare
- To experience a nightmare. Brother Fary of Omaha was nightmaring the rest of the night.
- To imagine (someone or something) as in a nightmare. She was the last person I’d expected to see, although I had not expected to see anyone at all. For a moment I thought it was a nightmare, and that I was nightmaring the whole thing.
- To trouble (someone or something), as by a nightmare. THe day is broke! Melpomene, be gone; / Hag of my Fancy, let me now alone: / Night-mare my ſoul no more; Go take thy flight / Where Traytors Ghoſts keep an eternal night; […]
