What does nightmare mean?

Definitions for nightmare
ˈnaɪtˌmɛərnight·mare

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word nightmare.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. nightmare, incubusnoun

    a situation resembling a terrifying dream

  2. nightmarenoun

    a terrifying or deeply upsetting dream

GCIDE

  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.

Wiktionary

  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 Dictionary

  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.

Wikipedia

  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.

ChatGPT

  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 Dictionary

  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.]

Wikidata

  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 Dictionary

  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 Resources

  1. nightmare

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

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British National Corpus

  1. Nouns Frequency

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

How to pronounce nightmare?

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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. Gore Vidal:

    The last best hope of earth, two trillion dollars in debt, is spinning out of control, and all we can do is stare at a flickering cathode-ray tube as Ollie answers questions on TV while the press, resolutely irrelevant as ever, asks politicians if they have committed adultery. From V-J Day 1945 to this has been, my fellow countrymen, a perfect nightmare.

  2. Principal Jill Versteeg:

    I think we can all agree an event like this is everyone's worst nightmare. Tonight, hug your students and love them.

  3. Gina Meyer:

    The last couple of days are like a parent's worst nightmare and you don't wake up from it, so it's just horrific, she was excited and she had a lot on her plate, and she had a lot going on, but she was happy. She was in great spirits.

  4. Charles Baudelaire:

    We are weighed down, every moment, by the conception and the sensation of Time. And there are but two means of escaping and forgetting this nightmare: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose.

  5. Raul Rodriguez:

    It started off as a nightmare, but then it turned out to be – holy moly – this is what I was meant to do.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

nightmare#1#9776#10000

Translations for nightmare

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"nightmare." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/nightmare>.

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