nightmare

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A very unpleasant or frightening dream.

   I had a nightmare that I tried to run but could neither move nor breathe.

2. 2
   noun

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   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.

4. 4
   noun

   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.

5. 5
   verb

   To experience a nightmare.

   Brother Fary of Omaha was nightmaring the rest of the night.

6. 6
   verb

   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.

7. 7
   verb

   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; […]

8. 8
   noun

   a terrifying or deeply upsetting dream

Etymology

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.