ghastly
41
6.8
- adjective
- /ˈɡæstli/
- Her ghastly injury left everyone in the room speechless and horrified.
- a ghastly death
- a ghastly story
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Watch on YouTubeIts wings are frozen to the ground, but it's in a ghastly, thwarted mime of escape.
- Its wings are frozen to the ground, but it's in a ghastly, thwarted mime of escape.
- So let's add just to finish this look off, because everything can look a bit ghastly and it's just foundation.
- There are all of these ghastly incidents of anti-Semitism on Columbia campus.
- The being clutched a single great sword in all eight hands, and both he and the sword glowed with a ghastly golden and light.
- And we've been reminded of it recently by these ghastly suicides, this horrible torture, and in the Bronx or in Queens.
- Then, of course, we had the ghastly events of Southport on what for many was the first day of the kids summer holidays.
- And people do do the most ghastly things to survive as you would as you would.
- Find in summer, ghastly in winter when the three of us cowered under a heat reflecting sheet.
Examples
-
Why did you bring us to this ghastly beach for lunch?
Fiction book (1995) -
They are both ghastly, ghastly crimes.
-
Then we come back here, and you put on that ghastly performance.
-
Who is this ghastly man?
-
"There was something ghastly about being here, and they all knew it.
Fiction book (1990) -
And what about this awful, ghastly disease?
-
- City life must have been ghastly.
-
In relation to me everyone and everything is ghastly in appearance.
-
Dare I say that this presents a truly ghastly portrait of this nation's educational leaders?
Academic text (1990) -
The performance was ghastly.
Synonyms
∞
1.5
Very bad or frightening in a way that makes you feel upset
200
5.5
Causing great fear or shock
156
5.1
Very ugly and likely to make people feel shocked or disgusted
134
3.7
Very bad and unpleasant, often causing fear or shock
116
3.2
Strange and frightening in a way that makes you feel nervous, like a ghost
103
4.5
Makes people feel very afraid and shocked
93
6.2
Shocking and unpleasant because it shows death or serious injury
84
5.6
Causing shock and strong disgust because it is very bad
79
7.0
Very shocking and scary, causing fear or disgust
77
5.1
A strange, frightening feeling as if ghosts are nearby
65
6.9
Being very strange and ugly in a way that shocks or amuses
63
4.5
Very bad and shocking, causing people to feel fear or sadness
58
1.1
Very frightening and causing fear or dread
47
4.1
A very unpleasant thing that shocks or disgusts you
34
7.4
Something that makes you feel fear or disgust
27
1.0
So frightening that people feel afraid
26
8.7
Strange and upsetting because it shows death or injury
16
7.0
Very frightening and unpleasant, like a bad dream
15
8.2
Showing an unhealthy interest in death and dead bodies
7
7.6
Very cruel and shocking, causing great pain and fear
4
8.2
Very bad and unpleasant, of poor quality
2
4.2
Very bad or unpleasant in a strong way
Antonyms
How Horrible
Surface Forms
Morphology
ghastly = ghast + ly
The suffix '-ly' clearly forms an adjective, and the word evokes 'ghostly'/'terrifying', but the root 'ghast' is archaic/obscure and not a productive standalone word for most learners, so the relation is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Ghastly comes from an old word ghast meaning 'ghost' or 'spirit', the same idea behind the modern word ghost and the word aghast. So to call something ghastly is to say it shocks you like a ghost might — it fills you with fear or seems deadly or horrible.