night|mare

night|mare «NYT _MAIR», noun, adjective.

–n.

1. a very distressing dream; dream causing fear or anxiety: »

I would find myself plunged…in some foul and ominous nightmare, from which I would awake strangling (Robert Louis Stevenson).

2. Figurative. a very distressing experience: »

The hurricane was a long nightmare.

3. Figurative. a horrible fear or dread.

4. Figurative. a sight, object, or person such as might be seen in a nightmare: »

What could have made so handsome a young man lend his arm to assist such a nightmare as Sister Ursula? (Scott).

5. an evil spirit formerly supposed to oppress people while they are asleep: »

King Arthur panted hard, Like one that feels a nightmare on his bed (Tennyson).

–adj.

like a nightmare; nightmarish: »

a nightmare voyage across the ocean. “For twelve hours I inhabited a nightmare world in which I experienced the torments of hell” (Maclean's).

╂[Old English niht night + mare a monster oppressing men during sleep]