nightmare
noun /ˈnaɪtmeə(r)/
/ˈnaɪtmer/
- 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
- …
- have
- suffer
- suffer from
- …
- haunt somebody
- plague somebody
- nightmare about
- 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
- …
- endure
- face
- live
- …
- be over
- come true
- scenario
- vision
- world
- …
Word OriginMiddle English (denoting a female evil spirit who was thought to lie upon and suffocate sleepers): from night + Old English mære ‘incubus’.