Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An evil spirit supposed to descend upon and have sexual intercourse with women as they sleep.
- n. A nightmare.
- n. An oppressive or nightmarish burden.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The nightmare.
- n. An imaginary being or demon, supposed to be the cause of nightmare; especially, such a being of the male sex who was supposed to consort with women in their sleep. In the middle ages this belief was accepted by the church and the law. Deformed children were supposed to be the results of such association. Compare
succubus . - n. Figuratively, a heavy or oppressive burden; especially, a heavy weight on the mind; anything that prevents the free use of the faculties.
- n. [capitalized] In entomology, a genus of parasitic hymenopters of the family Braconidæ: synonymous with Microgaster of Latreille.
Wiktionary
- n. An evil spirit supposed to oppress people while asleep, especially to have sex with women as they sleep.
- n. A feeling of oppression during sleep, sleep paralysis; night terrors, a nightmare.
- n. Any oppressive thing or person; a burden.
- n. One of various of parasitic insects, especially Aphidiinae
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A demon; a fiend; a lascivious spirit, supposed to have sexual intercourse with women by night.
- n. (Med.) The nightmare. See Nightmare.
- n. Any oppressive encumbrance or burden; anything that prevents the free use of the faculties.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a situation resembling a terrifying dream
- n. someone who depresses or worries others
- n. a male demon believed to lie on sleeping persons and to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women
Etymologies
- From Late Latin incubus, from Latin incubo ("nightmare, one who lies down on the sleeper"), from incubāre ("to lie upon, to hatch"), from in- ("on") + cubāre ("to lie"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Late Latin, alteration of Latin incubō, from incubāre, to lie down on; see incubate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The incubus is the one that came through the Doorway to find us.”
“So, unless it straggles back again and Father gets rid of his incubus, which isn't at all likely, the eldest daughter of the noble house of”
“Dufour, _Histoire de la Prostitution_, vol. v, Ch. XXV, Saint-André, physician-in-ordinary to the French King, pointed out in 1725 that the incubus was a dream.”
“When by our continued posture in sleep, some uneasy sensations are produced, we either gradually awake by the exertion of volition, or the muscles connected by habit with such sensations alter the position of the body; but where the sleep is uncommonly profound, and those uneasy sensations great, the disease called the incubus, or nightmare, is produced.”
“For all I knew the incubus was a lying piece of shit who was only trying to manipulate me for his own ends.”
“Until those Americans who are genuine patriots stand up united and speak against the incubus which is Israel, we are going on down the toilet.”
Firedoglake » Late Nite FDL: Dear Wolfie: Can You Tell the Difference Yet?
“He said there’s a spirit called an incubus that comes to women in their sleep, and—”
“The words of Montoyo had scored deeply, and the presence of our supernumerary laid a kind of incubus, like an omen of ill luck, upon us.”
“She enlarged the hole the children had begun, till it was quite an excavation, carrying on her game of "incubus" with the children all the time.”
“[Page 78] and soul - whether you have yet fixed any place for your summer proceedings; whether you are finally delivered from your 'incubus'; whether - but, in short, it is like talking in a soliloquy.”
Selections from the Letters of Geraldine Endsor Jewsbury to Jane Welsh Carlyle
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘incubus’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
supernatural creatures according to M...
Turned this up on etymonline.com (link). It's amazing.
Hobbit (n.)
1937, coined in the fantasy tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).
On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole...niss, nisses, thrummy-cap, fairy, whitewoman, nicknevin, sibyl, fates, sprite, gnome, cuttie, scrat and 186 more...
-
Band or Brand?
Band names that are also common words or phrases.
genesis, who, beatles, journey, germs, sublime, doors, cars, nirvana, bangles, tool, pixies and 192 more...
-
phrontistery - i
from phrontistery.info
izzat, izzard, ixiodic, izard, ivresse, ixora, ivorist, ivoride, ivorine, iulus, iulan, ithomiid and 510 more...
-
Phantasmas
Ouroboros, chimera, incubus, cerberus, hippogriff, leviathan, centaur, Jabberwock, numen, snark, sphinx, hippocamp and 26 more...
-
Boys I wouldn't go out with
As requested by bilby - http://wordie.org/lists/11872
clem, george, osama, adolph, dick, chewbacca, little willy, satan, santa claus, myself, chuck, lucifer and 52 more...
-
reams of dreams
imagine, muse, aspire, reverie, aisling, mette, sweven, hatch, fancy, Puck, Tangerine Dream, Eingana and 30 more...
-
the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
-
inkhorn's Words
inkhorn, aplomb, apotheosis, asinine, avatar, bombastic, boorish, bromide, bucolic, cagey, canvass, digress and 991 more...
-
SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL I
iconoclast, idiosyncrasy, ignoble, ignominious, illicit, illusory, illustrious, imbibe, imbue, immaculate, immaterial, immolate and 155 more...
-
katiad's Words
exquisite, obnoxious, noxious, extravaganza, whirlwind, whirling, wild, spinster, existential, chaos, zephyr, blasphemy and 310 more...
-
NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
-
NeoVolt's Words
schadenfreude, serendipity, idiosyncrasy, loess, caducous, vagary, schematic, steeple, licentious, tangential, verisimilitude, vernacular and 385 more...
-
Bedaphors
So
very
sleepyhypnagogic, chronotherapy, clinomania, condorm, librocubicularist, matutolypea, soporific, supine, decubitus, pandiculation, oscitancy, slugabed and 169 more...
-
kewpid's Words
moleskine, araldite, dessicate, cellar door, grotesque, fallacy, vendetta, raindrop, panacea, ethereal, hircus, treppenwitz and 446 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for incubus.
qroqqa In 1899 Sidney Sime, later to be the Dunsany illustrator, created an understated masterpiece of erotic horror, depicting the incubus in action. Aug 10, 2009