† ˈwiddendream, ˈwiddrim Sc. Obs.
Also wudden dream, widdrum, -dreme, windrem, woo-, wuddrum.
[OE. wódendréam ‘furor animi’ and wóddréam ‘demonium’ (also phr. on wódum dréame in delirium, lit. in mad joy: see wood a., dream n.1). For its survival in Sc. cf. wedenonfa’. For the phonology of the first syllable cf. Sc. widcok woodcock, widbin woodbine, and for the survival of the medial syllable, southern Sc. Munonday (OE. mónandæg) Monday.]
A state of mental disturbance or confusion; a wild fit. Chiefly in phr. in a widdendream or widdrim, usu. = in a ‘furious’ hurry, all of a sudden.
| [c 893 ælfred Oros. iii. vi. 108 On swelcum wodan dreame, þæt hie woldon ælcne mon,..mid atre acwellan, & hit on mete oþþe on drynce to ᵹeþicgenne ᵹesellan. a 1000 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 245/10 Furor enim animi cito finitur, uel grauius est quam ira, reþnes, wodendream. c 1000 ælfric Hom. II. 110 Seo dohtor, þe on wodum dreame læᵹ dweli⁓ᵹende.] |
| 1755 R. Forbes Ajax's Sp. etc. 31 At last we, like fierdy follows, flew to't flaught-bred, thinkin to raise it in a widden⁓dream. 1805 Jamieson Water Kelpie xix, The trout, the par, now here, now thare, As in a widdrim bang. 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 45 Sae fiercelins had his wid-dreme stirr'd him. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb xxxix, [He] should, in a sort of reckless ‘wudden dream’, determine that [etc.]. |