nightmarish
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of nightmarish
Explanation
Something nightmarish is truly horrifying, something that would show up in a bad dream. Your nightmarish day might start with a car accident on the way to school and end with a fight with your best friend. A chilling scream in the middle of the night is nightmarish, and traumatic experiences like an episode of bullying or nearly stumbling off the top of a cliff would also be nightmarish. You can also use this adjective to emphasize the unpleasantness of an experience in a slightly exaggerated way: "Ugh, that math test was absolutely nightmarish." Nightmarish things resemble nightmares, or terrifying dreams.
Vocabulary lists containing nightmarish
Rowan of Rin
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Novel Study: Their Eyes Were Watching God, Chapters 12–20
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nightmarish traffic around Glasgow's east end meant a fair few fans were not in their seats for kick-off.
From BBC • Oct. 4, 2023
Nightmarish Russian parable about a woman attempting to locate her husband, apparently in a Siberian prison, through a fug of bureaucratic delay and deflection.
From The Guardian • Jun. 19, 2018
Nightmarish conditions will happen, but you don’t have to become another statistic.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 16, 2017
Nightmarish bureaucracy, a three-tiered appeals system and a payment structure that incentivizes lawyers to drag out proceedings mean it's not uncommon for a case to take a decade to reach a final judgment.
From Time • Feb. 9, 2011
Nightmarish tales about bureaucratic morass abound, and it can take on Sisyphean qualities.
From New York Times • Apr. 19, 2010
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
