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nightmare - 6 dictionary results

night⋅mare

  [nahyt-mair]
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–noun
1. a terrifying dream in which the dreamer experiences feelings of helplessness, extreme anxiety, sorrow, etc.
2. a condition, thought, or experience suggestive of a nightmare: the nightmare of his years in prison.
3. (formerly) a monster or evil spirit believed to oppress persons during sleep.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME; see night, mare 2

Synonyms:
1. phantasmagoria. See dream.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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night·mare   (nīt'mâr')   
n.  
  1. A dream arousing feelings of intense fear, horror, and distress.
  2. An event or experience that is intensely distressing.
  3. A demon or spirit once thought to plague sleeping people.

[Middle English, a female demon that afflicts sleeping people : night, night; see night + mare, goblin (from Old English; see mer- in Indo-European roots).]
night'mar'ish adj., night'mar'ish·ly adv., night'mar'ish·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Nightmare

Night"mare`\, n. [Night + mare incubus. See Mare incubus.]

1. A fiend or incubus formerly supposed to cause trouble in sleep.

2. 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. --Dunglison.

3. Hence, any overwhelming, oppressive, or stupefying influence.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : nightmare
Spanish: pesadilla,
German: der Alptraum,
Japanese: 悪夢
More Translations »

nightmare 
c.1290, "an evil female spirit afflicting sleepers with a feeling of suffocation," compounded from night + mare "goblin that causes nightmares, incubus," from O.E. mare "incubus," from mera, mære, from P.Gmc. *maron "goblin," from PIE *mora- "incubus," from base *mer- "to rub away, harm, seize" (cf. first element in O.Ir. Morrigain "demoness of the corpses," lit. "queen of the nightmare," also Bulg., Serb., Pol. mora "incubus;" Fr. cauchemar, with first element is from O.Fr. caucher "to trample"). Meaning shifted mid-16c. from the incubus to the suffocating sensation it causes. Sense of "any bad dream" first recorded 1829; that of "very distressing experience" is from 1831.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: night·mare
Pronunciation: 'nIt-"ma(&)r, -"me(&)r
Function: noun
: a frightening dream accompanied by a sense of oppression orsuffocation that usually awakens the sleeper
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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nightmare night·mare (nīt'mâr')
n.

  1. A dream arousing feelings of intense fear, horror, and distress.
  2. An event or experience that is intensely distressing.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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