flightmare

English

Alternative forms

• flight-mare

Etymology

Blend of flight +‎ nightmare. Compare also frightmare.

Noun

flightmare (plural flightmares)

1. (travel, aviation) An unpleasant flight or experience during air travel.
   • 2011, Joe Shrader, Eden Falls, page 118:

     She glanced, for the first time since this flightmare started, to the man sitting in the aisle seat beside her.

   • 2015, Mary Helen Hensley, Promised by Heaven:

     I was so grateful to see my children that day, and even Jake was a sight for sore eyes after the “flightmare” from hell.

   • 2015, Jennifer Worick, Things I Want to Punch in the Face, page 15:

     The flightmare continues as I elbow my way through chuckleheads in pleated khakis or gamey business suits with phones clipped to their belts, parents who are wrangling several unruly kids hopped up on M&Ms, and reunited couples engaged in serious tonsil hockey.

2. (fantasy, D&D) A type of dragon with poisonous breath that feeds on luminous algae.
   • 2020, Gaston D. Cox, Aurea Mediocritas: A Book of Short Stories:

     Flames like flightmare algae hidden within the enclaves of a kaleidoscope illusion, a gateway into the god's secret treasure chest.