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Definition of nightmare noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

nightmare

noun
 
/ˈnaɪtmeə(r)/
 
/ˈnaɪtmer/
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  1. a dream that is very frightening or unpleasant
    • He still has nightmares about the accident.
    • She has a recurring nightmare about being stuck in a lift.
    Extra Examples
    • Survivors suffer flashbacks, nightmares and severe depression.
    • The faces of all the people he had killed haunted his nightmares.
    • The film gave me nightmares.
    • Horror films always give me nightmares.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • awful
    • horrible
    • terrible
    verb + nightmare
    • have
    • suffer
    • suffer from
    nightmare + verb
    • haunt somebody
    • plague somebody
    preposition
    • nightmare about
    See full entry
  2. an experience that is very frightening and unpleasant, or very difficult to deal with
    • The trip turned into a nightmare when they both got sick.
    • (informal) Nobody knows what's going on—it's a nightmare!
    • (informal) Filling in all those forms was a nightmare.
    • Losing a child is most people's worst nightmare.
    • If it goes ahead, it will be the nightmare scenario (= the worst thing that could happen).
    • Travel in the city was becoming a logistical nightmare.
    • nightmare for somebody What a nightmare for you!
    Extra Examples
    • The refugees had survived a living nightmare.
    • The writer evokes a nightmare vision of a future on a polluted planet.
    • Their dream of living in the country turned into a nightmare when they both fell seriously ill.
    • the nightmare scenario of mass unemployment
    • She has spoken about it to help others get over the nightmare of addiction.
    • The nightmare began last Wednesday afternoon.
    • These new regulations will be an administrative nightmare.
    • This has been an absolute nightmare for me and my family.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • awful
    • horrible
    • real
    verb + nightmare
    • endure
    • face
    • live
    nightmare + verb
    • be over
    • come true
    nightmare + noun
    • scenario
    • vision
    • world
    See full entry
  3. Word OriginMiddle English (denoting a female evil spirit who was thought to lie upon and suffocate sleepers): from night + Old English mære ‘incubus’.
See nightmare in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee nightmare in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
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