Sekirov Dictionary

nightmare

UK /ˈnaɪt.mɛə/US /ˈnaɪt.mɛɚ/

noun 4
verb 3
forms 3
phrases 1

noun4

•
a bad dream that makes someone feel afraid or very upset
- I had a nightmare that I tried to run but could neither move nor breathe.
- July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Riseshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-dark-knight-rises-review-batman,82624/ With his crude potato-sack mask and fear-inducing toxins, The Scarecrow, a “psychopharmacologist” at an insane asylum, acts as a conjurer of nightmares, capable of turning his patients’ most terrifying anxieties against them.
•
(figurative) 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 feeling of extreme anxiety or suffocation experienced during sleep; sleep paralysis.
- Had been afflicted in the night with that strange complaint called the nightmare. — 1792
•
(no longer used) 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. — 1817

verb3

•
To experience a nightmare.
- Brother Fary of Omaha was nightmaring the rest of the night. — 1931
•
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. — 1983
•
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; […] — 1660

forms

nightmared · nightmaring · nightmares

Phrases with nightmare

out of a nightmare
Terrifying; shocking.

This dictionary works without the internet: on your phone · in Chrome