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daymare

noun
day·​mare | \ ˈdā-ˌmer How to pronounce daymare (audio) \

Definition of daymare

: a nightmarish fantasy experienced while awake
Did You Know? Example Sentences Learn More about daymare

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Did You Know?

Long ago, the word nightmare designated an evil spirit that made its victims feel like they were suffocating in their sleep (prompting physician-botanist William Turner to introduce "a good remedy agaynst the stranglyng of the nyght mare" in 1562). By the early 1700s, the Age of Reason had arrived, nightmares were bad dreams, and "daymare" was a logically analogous choice when English speakers sought a word for a frightening and uncontrollable fantasy, a run-away daydream. And since the 1800s, when Charles Dickens wrote "a monstrous load that I was obliged to bear, a daymare that there was no possibility of breaking in, a weight that brooded on my wits" in David Copperfield, we’ve been using "daymare" figuratively. For example, today we might refer to "a logistical daymare."

Examples of daymare in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

 The idealism of the day takes on a daymare quality. — Kerry Pieri, Harper's BAZAAR, "Q&A: Richard Phillips's "First Point" Stars Lindsay Lohan as Surfer Girl," 6 June 2012

First Known Use of daymare

1737, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for daymare

day + -mare (as in nightmare)

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More Definitions for daymare

daymare

noun
day·​mare | \ ˈdā-ˌma(ə)r, -ˌme(ə)r How to pronounce daymare (audio) \

Medical Definition of daymare

: a nightmarish fantasy experienced while awake

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