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View synonyms for ghastly

ghastly

[ gast-lee ]

adjective

, ghast·li·er, ghast·li·est.
  1. shockingly frightful or dreadful; horrible:

    a ghastly murder.

  2. resembling a ghost, especially in being very pale:

    a ghastly look to his face.

    Synonyms: cadaverous, pallid, deathlike

  3. terrible; very bad:

    a ghastly error.



adverb

  1. Also ghast·li·ly [] ghast·i·ly []. in a ghastly manner; horribly; terribly.
  2. with a deathlike quality.

ghastly

/ ˈɡɑːstlɪ /

adjective

  1. informal.
    very bad or unpleasant
  2. deathly pale; wan
  3. informal.
    extremely unwell; ill

    they felt ghastly after the party

  4. terrifying; horrible


adverb

  1. unhealthily; sickly

    ghastly pale

  2. archaic.
    in a horrible or hideous manner

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Derived Forms

  • ˈghastliness, noun

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Other Words From

  • ghast·li·ness noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of ghastly1

1275–1325; Middle English gastly; ghast, -ly

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Word History and Origins

Origin of ghastly1

Old English gāstlīc spiritual; see ghostly

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Example Sentences

The nation can either accept his ideas or risk ghastly consequences.

And so those closest to the ghastly virus remain deaf to hashtags, and silent.

Watching her drown her sorrows in hooch and then get beat up by Crazy Eyes in the showers was ghastly…but great television.

Like Carina, she remembers a ghastly scene once the American soldiers withdrew.

It was a ghastly tragedy that rattled a nation and became a byword for anti-Semitism in France.

The explanation of his mysterious earlier moods offered itself with a clarity that was ghastly.

In a paroxysm of rage and fear, he gave the final order, and the Well of Cawnpore thereby attained its ghastly immortality.

Native rumors had brought the news of the massacre at Cawnpore, though the ghastly tragedy of the Well was yet to come.

But the simulacra of certain ghastly events that took place under that roof in past days still continue.

He could not fail to note the different effects he and his cousin produced in her—the ghastly difference.

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