Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The nightmare.
  • noun [capitalized] In ornithology, a genus of owls: same as Scops.
  • noun [capitalized] In entomology, a genus of ichneumon-flies, of the subfamily Pimplinæ, containing insects of moderate or small size with a long ovipositor, usually parasitic on lepidopterous larvæ. There are about 12 North American and nearly 20 European species.

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

  • noun The nightmare.

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

  • noun obsolete an incubus; a nightmare

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Hebrew; for ephialtes, which signifies leaper, oppressor, incubus, in Greek is, according to Pluche, “a vast accumulation of clouds.”

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • But you and me know that they're all just too busy celebrating their new-found peace and freedom to go home. ephialtes You are assuming things and over simplifying also the sad substitute we have of a democracy we have in the West is pretty unevolved.

    The Guardian World News Simon Jenkins 2010

  • Boss? at least you didn’t get “jim norton” or “ephialtes” until I just mentioned them, and I appologize for that.

    Notes From the Airport « Whatever 2007

Comments

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  • Nightmare;also,the demon believed to cause it

    November 5, 2007