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incubus love

incubus

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An evil spirit supposed to descend upon and have sexual intercourse with women as they sleep.
  • noun A nightmare.
  • noun An oppressive or nightmarish burden.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The nightmare.
  • noun 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.
  • noun Figuratively, a heavy or oppressive burden; especially, a heavy weight on the mind; anything that prevents the free use of the faculties.
  • noun [capitalized] In entomology, a genus of parasitic hymenopters of the family Braconidæ: synonymous with Microgaster of Latreille.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A demon; a fiend; a lascivious spirit, supposed to have sexual intercourse with women by night.
  • noun (Med.) The nightmare. See Nightmare.
  • noun Any oppressive encumbrance or burden; anything that prevents the free use of the faculties.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An evil spirit supposed to oppress people while asleep, especially to have sex with women as they sleep.
  • noun A feeling of oppression during sleep, sleep paralysis; night terrors, a nightmare.
  • noun Any oppressive thing or person; a burden.
  • noun One of various of parasitic insects, especially Aphidiinae

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a situation resembling a terrifying dream
  • noun someone who depresses or worries others
  • noun a male demon believed to lie on sleeping persons and to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Late Latin, alteration of Latin incubō, from incubāre, to lie down on; see incubate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

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Examples

  • The incubus is the one that came through the Doorway to find us.

    Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011

  • The incubus is the one that came through the Doorway to find us.

    Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011

  • 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

    Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton Campus Jessie Graham [pseud.] Flower

  • 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.

    Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 The Evolution of Modesty; The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity; Auto-Erotism Havelock Ellis 1899

  • 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.

    Zoonomia, Vol. I Or, the Laws of Organic Life Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • For all I knew the incubus was a lying piece of shit who was only trying to manipulate me for his own ends.

    Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011

  • For all I knew the incubus was a lying piece of shit who was only trying to manipulate me for his own ends.

    Brush of Darkness Allison Pang 2011

  • 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? 2006

  • He said there’s a spirit called an incubus that comes to women in their sleep, and—

    Elixir Hilary Duff 2010

  • 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.

    Desert Dust J. Clinton Shepherd 1911

Comments

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  • qroqqa commented on the word incubus

    In 1899 Sidney Sime, later to be the Dunsany illustrator, created an understated masterpiece of erotic horror, depicting the incubus in action.

    August 11, 2009