• (British, America) IPA: /ˈɪŋ.kjʊ.bəs/, /ˈɪn.kjə.bəs/

incubus (plural incubi)

1. (mediaeval folklore) An evil spirit supposed to oppress people while asleep, especially to have sex with women as they sleep.

   Antonyms: succubus

   Hypernyms: evil spirit, spirit

2. A feeling of oppression during sleep, sleep paralysis; night terrors, a nightmare.

   Synonyms: nightmare

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗:

     , vol. I, New York 2001, p.249:

     it increaseth fearful dreams, incubus, night-walking, crying out, and much unquietness  […] .

3. (by extension) Any oppressive thing or person; a burden.
   • August 1935, Clark Ashton Smith, Weird Tales, "The Treader of the Dust":

     Again he felt the impulse of flight: but his body was a dry dead incubus that refused to obey his volition.

   • 2002, Colin Jones (historian), The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 132-3:

     Notions of civic virtue were at that moment changing, in ways which would make of Louis's alleged vices an incubus on the back of the monarchy.

4. (entomology) One of various of parasitic insects, especially subfamily Aphidiinae.

• French: incube
• German: Inkubus
• Italian: incubo
• Portuguese: íncubo
• Russian: инку́б
• Spanish: íncubo

• French: cauchemar, terreurs nocturnes, incube
• German: Alptraum
• Italian: incubo
• Portuguese: pesadelo, íncubo
• Russian: кошма́р
• Spanish: pesadilla

• French: fardeau, boulet, croix, tyran, sangsue, vampire
• German: Last, Kreuz
• Russian: груз забота
• Spanish: cruz, carga