1. A fiend or incubus formerly supposed to cause trouble in sleep.
2. A condition in sleep usually caused by improper eating or by digestive or nervous troubles, and characterized
by a sense of extreme uneasiness or discomfort (as of weight on the chest or stomach, impossibility
of motion or speech, etc.), or by frightful or oppressive dreams, from which one wakes after extreme
anxiety, in a troubled state of mind; incubus. Dunglison.
3. Hence, any overwhelming, oppressive, or stupefying influence.
Nightshade
(Night"shade`) n. [AS. nichtscadu.] (Bot.) A common name of many species of the genus
Solanum, given esp. to the Solanum nigrum, or black nightshade, a low, branching weed with small
white flowers and black berries reputed to be poisonous.
Deadly nightshade. Same as Belladonna (a). — Enchanter's nightshade. See under Enchanter.
— Stinking nightshade. See Henbane. - - Three-leaved nightshade. See Trillium.
Nightshirt
(Night"shirt`) n. A kind of nightgown for men.
Nighttime
(Night"time`) n. The time from dusk to dawn; — opposed to daytime.
Nightward
(Night"ward) a. Approaching toward night.
Nigraniline
(Ni*gran"i*line) n. [L. niger black + E. aniline.] (Chem.) The complex, nitrogenous, organic
base and dyestuff called also aniline black.
Nigrescent
(Ni*gres"cent) a. [L. nigrescens, p. pr. of nigrescere to grow black, fr. niger black. See
Negro.] Growing black; changing to a black color; approaching to blackness. Johnson.
Nigrification
(Nig`ri*fi*ca"tion) n. [L. nigrificare to blacken; niger black + -ficare (in comp.) to make.
See -fy.] The act or process of making black. [R.] Johnson.
Nigrine
(Ni"grine) n. [L. niger black: cf. F. nigrine.] (Min.) A ferruginous variety of rutile.
Nigritude
(Nig"ri*tude) n. [L. nigritudo, fr. niger black.] Blackness; the state of being black. Lamb.
Nigromancie
(Nig"ro*man`cie) n. Necromancy. [Obs.]
Nigromancien
(Nig"ro*man`cien) n. A necromancer. [Obs.]
These false enchanters or nigromanciens.
Chaucer. Nigrosine
(Ni"gro*sine) n. [From L. niger black.] (Chem.) A dark blue dyestuff, of the induline group; —
called also azodiphenyl blue.
Nigua
(||Ni"gua) n. [Sp.] (Zoöl.) The chigoe.
Nihil
(||Ni"hil) n. [L.] Nothing.
||Nihil album [L., white nothing] (Chem.), oxide of zinc. See under Zinc. — ||Nihil debet [L., he
owes nothing] (Law), the general issue in certain actions of debt. — ||Nihil dicit [L., he says nothing]
(Law), a declinature by the defendant to plead or answer. Tomlins.
Nihilism
(Ni"hil*ism) n. [L. nihil nothing: cf. F. nihilisme. See Annihilate.]
1. Nothingness; nihility.
2. The doctrine that nothing can be known; scepticism as to all knowledge and all reality.
