nightmares

Noun

nightmare (plural nightmares)

1. A very unpleasant or frightening dream.
   • I had a nightmare that I tried to run but could neither move nor breathe.
2. (figuratively) 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.

   Synonyms:

   incubus, succubus, night hag

3. (archaic) 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 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees...
4. (historical) A feeling of extreme anxiety or suffocation experienced during sleep; sleep paralysis.
   • The Night-mare generally ſeizes people ſleeping on their backs, and often begins with frightful dreams, which are ſoon ſucceeded by a difficult reſpiration, a violent oppreſſion on the breaſt, and a total privation of voluntary motion.1753, John Bond, An Essay on the Incubus, or Night-mare, London: Printed for D. Wilson and T. Durham, at Plato’s Head, in the Strand, page 2

See all 7 meanings of nightmare