@temporary_user_name There are a number of rules about which nouns are more likely to get turned into verbs; H&P notes that morphological complexity plays some role here, but nothing that directly explains the dream/nightmare case.

So this is interesting!

@temporary_user_name Here is an example of verbing nightmare: "I had bad dreams last night. I was nightmared so hard I woke up in a sweat." In context, that is clear and understood by any but the dumbest or most literal listeners. Nevertheless, it's still not an "official" verb; it would require a lot of people to use it so that it is often heard.

In particular, there's a rule that nouns with suffixes (like -ness) almost never get turned into verbs. But nightmare isn't like that--it's a compound noun, and those can be converted to verbs like to blacklist.

@Robusto In that hypothetical sentence, "nightmared" is presumably really an adjective, not a verb, no? It's not a passive construction corresponding to "That dream nightmared me," which is far less acceptable.

Really it should take a content clause, like dream: "I nightmared that a monster was chasing me."

@alphabet "The drink and food fouled my sleep, nightmaring me awake in a cold sweat."

In any case, preterites can be adjectives, that much is true. But that is not necessarily always true.

BTW, I personally wouldn't verb nightmare in any of these contexts, but someone else might, and it could even be deemed witty by some.

@Robusto To me that sounds quite bad, worse than the result of verbing most nouns, but I'm not sure why.

I didn't say it was good; I merely said it was possible.

I'm sure there's some reason why that sounds so bad. But I'm not smart enough for this question.

But others will have their own opinions. When someone in basketball is said to have "bricked" a shot, that communicates an image perfectly, which is why it has found its way into the vernacular.

@alphabet Nightmare and blacklist are quite different. List is a noun and a common verb—thus one can waitlist, backlist, etc.

@Xanne Yeah, that's probably part of it.