hag-ridden, ppl. a.
(ˈhægrɪd(ə)n)
Also hag-rid.
[f. hag n.1 + ridden ppl. a.]
1. Ridden by a hag; esp. afflicted by nightmare.
| 1684 Otway Atheist ii. i, He's marry'd, plagu'd, troubled, and Hag-ridden. 1758 W. Battie Madness vii. 49 (Jod.) Thus the glutton..is hag-ridden in his sleep. 1817 Coleridge Zapolya i. Prel. 88 Must I hag-ridden pant as in a dream? 1886 T. Hardy Mayor Casterbr. I. xx. 246 When she had not slept she did not quaintly tell the servants next morning that she had been ‘hagrid’. |
2. Oppressed in mind; harassed.
| 1702 C. Mather Magn. Chr. iii. ii. xxviii. (1852) 507 He did not allow himself to be hagridden with the enchantments thereof. 1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. 85 So completely hag-ridden by the fear of being influenced by selfish motives. 1891 Spectator 4 Apr. 471/1 Our minds are jaded and hag-ridden, as it were, by the physical fatalities of modern science. |