nightmarishEnglishOxford English Thesaurusnightmarish adjective Grant fired at the nightmarish, clawing figure before him: unearthly, monstrous, ghostly, spine-chilling, horrific, macabre, hideous, unspeakable, gruesome, grisly, ghastly, harrowing, hair-raising, disturbing, Kafkaesque; informal scary, creepy; rare phantasmagorical.nightmarish Oxford Dictionary of English