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 sb.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. K. Ælfred, Oros., III. vi. 108. On swelcum wodan dreame, þæt hie woldon ælcne mon,… mid atre acwellan, & hit on mete oþþe on drynce to ʓeþicgenne ʓesellan.
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 læʓ dweliʓende.]
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 widdendream.
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.].
