dread fascination

Noun

dread fascination (countable and uncountable, plural dread fascinations)

1. A malignant supernatural influence produced by the evil eye.
   • Fair was Eutelidas once, with his beautiful hair, But admiring his face in the stream, on himself he inflicted A dread fascination, and wasted away with disease.1895, Frederick Thomas Elworthy, The Evil Eye, →ISBN, page 43
   • Hence this charm, with its mermaid or siren and its pendant bells, must have been considered to possess the power of attracting to itself the dread fascination, and thus averting the evil eye from the person of its possessor.1905, James Thomas Herbert Baily, The Connoisseur - Volume 11, page 56
2. A response to something characterized by staring, an inability to move or intervene, and feelings of dread.
   • Her heart beat so fast that it nearly stified her; she stared in dread fascination at that spectral figure, which was Hugo and yet which was not Hugo, for the face was pale and transparent, the eyes shone strangely — he looked altogether unearthly.1886, Edna Lyall, In the Golden Days, page 167
   • It appears to be in that strange mental condition which most of ourselves must often enough have experienced in the case of dreams — a kind of dread fascination, which enchains all the mental faculties, and causes, as it were, a failure of the faculties of the brain.1892, The Sunday Magazine, page 190
3. An obsessive interest in something that evokes feelings of fear or that hurts the person with the interest.
   • In Cincinnati, in Boston, wherever he has been, he has secured the sympathy of the best portion of the community, and has[]been the means of rescuing thousands from the dread fascinations of this modern Circe.1845 February 18, “Mr. [Jonathan Harrington] Green, the Reformed Gambler”, in [Horace Greeley], editor, New-York Daily Tribune, volume IV, number 270 (1201 overall), New York, N.Y.: Greeley &...
   • We can also see that one element in crime fiction always remains the same: our dread fascination for the unknown, for the darker side of human nature, and the everpresent phantom of danger.1977, The Armchair Detective - Volume 10, page 83