fever dream

[ fee-ver dreem ]

noun

1. a particularly distressing, scary, or bizarre dream that a person may have when experiencing a fever:

   Bedridden with pneumonia, he had a fever dream in which bony old cats were climbing the walls of his room.

2. a situation, circumstance, or experience, typically unfavorable, that is odd enough to be likened more to a dream than to reality:

   So far, college has felt like a fever dream—ever since I arrived I’ve just felt so out of place.

Word History and Origins

Origin of fever dream¹

First recorded in 1795–1805

Example Sentences

The sets—which, really, were a feat of design and direction—appeared to be remnants of a Lewis Carroll fever dream.

From The Daily Beast

Take Too Many Cooks: a fever dream of a segment that aired at 4:00am earlier this week.

From The Daily Beast

Nobody died from Ebola, or ISIS or Honduran children, unless it was in a goofball-induced, Louie Gohmert fever dream.

From The Daily Beast

The most riveting stories so far deal with trivial matters that sound like deleted scenes from a George Costanza fever dream.

From The Daily Beast

It feels like a fever dream that you can't quite wake up from, even when you turn off the TV.

From The Daily Beast

Now, in his fever-dream, the dreadful details and sensations imagined in health came to him, but with tenfold vividness.

From Project Gutenberg

How like the half insane mumbling of a fever dream is the whole war part of his late message!

From Project Gutenberg

How like the half-insane mumbling of a fever-dream is the whole war part of the late Message!

From Project Gutenberg

How like the half insane mumbling of a fever dream is the whole war part of the late message!

From Project Gutenberg

Surely, surely it was some fever dream which had come upon him.

From Project Gutenberg