Nightmare
['naɪtmeə] or ['naɪt'mɛr]
Definition
(noun.) a terrifying or deeply upsetting dream.
(noun.) a situation resembling a terrifying dream.
Inputed by Josiah--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A fiend or incubus formerly supposed to cause trouble in sleep.
(n.) A condition in sleep usually caused by improper eating or by digestive or nervous troubles, and characterized by a sense of extreme uneasiness or discomfort (as of weight on the chest or stomach, impossibility of motion or speech, etc.), or by frightful or oppressive dreams, from which one wakes after extreme anxiety, in a troubled state of mind; incubus.
(n.) Hence, any overwhelming, oppressive, or stupefying influence.
Checked by Cindy
Definition
n. a dreadful dream accompanied with pressure on the breast and a feeling of powerlessness to move or speak—personified as an incubus or evil-spirit.—adj. Night′marish.
Inputed by Franklin
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of being attacked with this hideous sensation, denotes wrangling and failure in business. For a young woman, this is a dream prophetic of disappointment and unmerited slights. It may also warn the dreamer to be careful of her health, and food.
Editor: Myra
Examples
- And the Old Man must have been an actor in many a primordial nightmare. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- I have been a nightmare to myself, just now--must have had one, I think. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Well, for a year or so the kiln problem was a nightmare to me. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Or else it looked as if it had gradually decomposed into that nightmare condition, out of the overflowings of the polluted stream. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- To this hour, when I have the nightmare, it repeats the rush and saltness of briny waves in my throat, and their icy pressure on my lungs. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- I come up, after having fallen asleep myself, below, and find you in your wrapper here, with the nightmare. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- Calming himself by an effort, he added-- A servant has had the nightmare; that is all. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- After which, the nightmare. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Now, indeed, was the life of Tublat a living nightmare. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- The blackest nightmare in the infernal stables grazes on Tom-all-Alone's, and Tom is fast asleep. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- There they remained, a nightmare to me, many and many a night and day. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- We were not a nightmare here, where were civilization and intelligence in place of Spanish and Italian superstition, dirt and dread of cholera. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Before it awakened it produced nightmares. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- I will make you lead the same life as I do myself,—open-air life,—and in a few months you will find these nightmares of the soul completely disappear. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
Edited by Barrett