witch-ridingn.
/ˈwɪtʃˌrʌɪdɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈwɪtʃˌraɪdɪŋ/ The process or fact of being tormented, beset, or ‘ridden’ by a witch while asleep at night (see witch n. 2). Hence: (colloquial and regional) a feeling of suffocation or great distress experienced during sleep; a nightmare.Cf. hag-riding n., riding of the witch at witch n. Phrases 2.
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the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > evil spirit or demon > [noun] > nightmare or nocturnal demon
mareeOE
nightmarec1300
witch1440
night fury1552
incubus1561
night spirit1562
hag1598
ephialtes1601
tenebrio1656
night spectre1707
nocturnal1861
witch-riding1883
1691 Athenian Mercury 24 Oct. 1/2 Quest. 4. Whether there's any such thing as a Hag, which the Common People fancy to be Witch-riding, when they are in their Beds in the Night-time, and as some say, when they are perfectly awake, and with such a Vehemency that they are not able to stir either Hand or Foot.
1808 R. Gray Theory of Dreams II. xii. 120 A spectre of the night..seized men in their sleep, and suddenly deprived them of speech and motion; it was vulgarly called witch-riding.
1883 Jersey Weekly Press 10 Feb. 3/7 At the present day, too, one of the names of nightmare in use among our agricultural peasantry in the northern counties is ‘witch-riding’—wytche being one of the old English names for the complaint.
1952 Midwest Folklore 2 239 Talk of witch-riding..almost always leads into a discussion of means to ward off or catch witches... Pins placed in the seat of a chair will impale the skin of the witch and prevent her from slipping it off [sic]..to ride the sleeper.
2011 R. Hurd Sleep Paralysis iv. 41 According to 17th century American court documents,..a woman was tried as a witch because her accuser said that her apparition came into his room at night and climbed on top of him. This was called ‘witch riding’ and still is in some African-American communities.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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