Definitions for NIGHTMARE
ˈnaɪtˌmɛərnight·mare

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. nightmare, incubusnoun

   a situation resembling a terrifying dream

2. nightmarenoun

   a terrifying or deeply upsetting dream

GCIDERate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Nightmarenoun

   A trerrifying or oppressive dream characterized by a sense of helplessness in the face of danger, extreme uneasiness or discomfort (as of weight on the chest or stomach, impossibility of motion or speech, etc.) or extreme anxiety, from which one wakes in a troubled state of mind.

2. Nightmarenoun

   Hence: Any overwhelming, oppressive, or terrifying experience resembling a nightmare especially in the inability to escape from an unpleasant situation.

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. nightmarenoun

   A female demon or monster, thought to plague people while they slept and cause a feeling of suffocation and terror during sleep.

2. nightmarenoun

   A very bad or frightening dream.

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

3. nightmarenoun

   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.

4. Etymology: From night + mare.

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Nightmarenoun

   A morbid oppression in the night, resembling the pressure of weight upon the breast.

   Etymology: night, and according to William Temple, mara, a spirit that, in the heathen mythology, was related to torment or suffocate sleepers.

   Saint Withold footed thrice the would,
   He met the nightmare, and her name he told;
   Bid her alight, and her troth plight. William Shakespeare, K. Lear.

   The forerunners of an apoplexy are, dulness, drowsiness, vertigoes, tremblings, oppressions in sleep, and night-mares. John Arbuthnot, on Aliments.

WikipediaRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Nightmare

   A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety or great sadness. The dream may contain situations of discomfort, psychological or physical terror, or panic. After a nightmare, a person will often awaken in a state of distress and may be unable to return to sleep for a short period of time. Recurrent nightmares may require medical help, as they can interfere with sleeping patterns and cause insomnia. Nightmares can have physical causes such as sleeping in an uncomfortable position or having a fever, or psychological causes such as stress or anxiety. Eating before going to sleep, which triggers an increase in the body's metabolism and brain activity, can be a potential stimulus for nightmares.The prevalence of nightmares in children (5–12 years old) is between 20 and 30%, and for adults is between 8 and 30%. In common language, the meaning of nightmare has extended as a metaphor to many bad things, such as a bad situation or a scary monster or person.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. nightmare

   A nightmare is a distressing or terrifying dream that typically occurs during sleep, causing feelings of intense fear, anxiety, horror, or discomfort. Often, it can lead to disturbed sleep and leave the person with vivid and disturbing memories after waking up.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Nightmarenoun

   a fiend or incubus formerly supposed to cause trouble in sleep

2. Nightmarenoun

   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

3. Nightmarenoun

   hence, any overwhelming, oppressive, or stupefying influence

4. Etymology: [Night + mare incubus. See Mare incubus.]

WikidataRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Nightmare

   A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror. Sufferers usually awaken in a state of distress and may be unable to return to sleep for a prolonged period of time. Nightmares can have physical causes such as sleeping in an uncomfortable or awkward position, having a fever, or psychological causes such as stress, anxiety, and ingestion of opioid drugs used in pain killers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone. Eating before going to sleep, which triggers an increase in the body's metabolism and brain activity, is a potential stimulus for nightmares. Recurrent nightmares that can interfere with sleeping patterns and cause insomnia may require medical help.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Nightmare

   nīt′mār, 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. [A.S. niht, night, mara, a nightmare; cf. Old High Ger. mara, incubus, Ice. mara, nightmare.]

Suggested ResourcesRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. nightmare

   Song lyrics by nightmare -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by nightmare on the Lyrics.com website.

Matched Categories

1. • Dream
   • Situation

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'NIGHTMARE' in Nouns Frequency: #2034

How to pronounce NIGHTMARE?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say NIGHTMARE in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of NIGHTMARE in Chaldean Numerology is: 3

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of NIGHTMARE in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of NIGHTMARE in a Sentence

1. Scott C. Holstad:

   I woke last night from a nightmare in which I saw a malignant society of pathological liars racked with insecurities, consumed by guilt, screaming for violence and I noticed I was sweating most profusely as I thanked the heavens above that it was only a dream before turning on the light to get a cigarette.

2. Angus Robertson:

   These revelations, if true, are extremely concerning. It reads as a nightmare catalog of serious safety breaches, they add to what appears to be a chaotic, shambolic safety culture on these aged subs.

3. Octavio Paz:

   Modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake. But this wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason.

4. Ko Sai:

   We just heard a loud noise sounding like thunder and saw that the huge mountain collapsed and a huge wave of rubble was moving and sprawling on a wide area, it was just like a nightmare.

5. Karl Marx:

   The past lies like a nightmare upon the present

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=NIGHTMARE
2. ^ GCIDE
   https://gcide.gnu.org.ua/?q=NIGHTMARE
3. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nightmare
4. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=NIGHTMARE
5. ^ Wikipedia
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare
6. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
7. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/NIGHTMARE
8. ^ Wikidata
   https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?search=NIGHTMARE
9. ^ Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/37683/37683-h/37683-h.htm#:~:text=NIGHTMARE