ghastly
adjective/ˈɡɑːstli/
/ˈɡæstli/
(comparative ghastlier, superlative ghastliest)
- (of an event) very frightening and unpleasant, because it involves pain, death, etc. synonym horrible
- a ghastly crime/murder
- She woke up in the middle of a ghastly nightmare.
- (informal) (of an experience or a situation) very bad; unpleasant synonym terrible
- The weather was ghastly.
- It's all been a ghastly mistake.
- When she mentioned redundancies, for one ghastly moment, I thought she meant me.
- (informal) (of a person or thing) that you find unpleasant and dislike very much synonym horrible
- her ghastly husband
- This lipstick is a ghastly colour.
- I look ghastly in red.
- [not usually before noun] ill or upset synonym terrible
- I felt ghastly the next day.
- Do I look as ghastly as I feel?
- (literary) very pale in appearance, like a dead person
- His face was ghastly white.
- She had a ghastly pallor.
Word OriginMiddle English: from obsolete gast ‘terrify’, from Old English gǣstan, of Germanic origin; related to ghost. The gh spelling is by association with ghost. The sense ‘objectionable’ dates from the mid 19th cent.
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ghastly