out of a nightmare
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Extremely bad or frightening
Literally: from a bad dream
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The traffic was out of a nightmare during rush hour
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “out of a nightmare” mean?
Extremely bad or frightening Literally: from a bad dream
Is “out of a nightmare” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.