From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Incubus \In"cu*bus\, noun; pl. E. {Incubuses}, L. {Incubi}. [L., the nightmare. Cf. {Incubate}.]
1. A demon; a fiend; a lascivious spirit, supposed to have sexual intercourse with women by night. --Tylor.
The devils who appeared in the female form were generally called succubi; those who appeared like men incubi, though this distinction was not always preserved. --Lecky.
2. (Med.) The nightmare. See {Nightmare}.
Such as are troubled with incubus, or witch-ridden, as we call it. --Burton.
3. Any oppressive encumbrance or burden; anything that prevents the free use of the faculties.
Debt and usury is the incubus which weighs most heavily on the agricultural resources of Turkey. --J. L. Farley.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: a male demon believed to lie on sleeping persons and to have sexual intercourse with sleeping women
2: a situation resembling a terrifying dream [syn: {nightmare}]
3: someone who depresses or worries others [also: {incubi} (pl)]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
86 Moby Thesaurus words for "incubus": Baba Yaga, Dracula, Frankenstein, Lilith, Wolf-man, afreet, bad dream, bale, barghest, bogey, bogeyman, brown study, bugaboo, bugbear, burden, burdening, burthen, cacodemon, cargo, charge, charging, cumber, cumbrance, daeva, daydream, deadweight, demon, devil, drag, dream, dybbuk, evil spirit, fee-faw-fum, fiend, fiend from hell, freight, frightener, genie, genius, ghost, ghoul, gyre, handicap, hellion, hobgoblin, holy terror, horror, incumbency, jinni, jinniyeh, lading, lamia, load, loading, millstone, monster, nightmare, ogre, ogress, oppression, overload, overtaxing, overweighting, phantom, pipe dream, pressure, rakshasa, revenant, reverie, saddling, satan, scarebabe, scarecrow, scarer, shedu, specter, succubus, superincumbency, surcharge, taxing, terror, the undead, vampire, vision, werewolf, yogini
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
INCUBUS, noun One of a race of highly improper demons who, though probably not wholly extinct, may be said to have seen their best nights. For a complete account of _incubi_ and _succubi_, including _incubae_ and _succubae_, see the _Liber Demonorum_ of Protassus (Paris, 1328), which contains much curious information that would be out of place in a dictionary intended as a text-book for the public schools. Victor Hugo relates that in the Channel Islands Satan himself -- tempted more than elsewhere by the beauty of the women, doubtless -- sometimes plays at _incubus_, greatly to the inconvenience and alarm of the good dames who wish to be loyal to their marriage vows, generally speaking. A certain lady applied to the parish priest to learn how they might, in the dark, distinguish the hardy intruder from their husbands. The holy man said they must feel his brown for horns; but Hugo is ungallant enough to hint a doubt of the efficacy of the test.
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