spooky vibe
- noun
- Informal
- As the wind howled through the trees, the old house gave off a spooky vibe that made everyone hesitant to enter.
Examples
-
With cobwebs hanging in every corner, the dimly lit attic had a spooky vibe that felt as if ghosts were watching.
-
The eerie silence of the abandoned street created a spooky vibe that sent chills down their spines.
-
It's not even dark yet here in Salem, but the spooky vibes are gettin' heavy, baby.
Synonyms
A feeling of fear caused by something you see or hear
A strange, quiet feeling that makes you feel afraid or uneasy
A strange, eerie feeling that makes you feel uneasy
A strange, quiet feeling that makes you feel afraid
A feeling that someone or something is strange and makes you feel unsafe
A dark, mysterious, and scary mood in a place or story
Antonyms
How Creepy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an atmosphere or feeling that is creepy or eerie' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'spooky' (causing unease, ghostly) with 'vibe' (a sensed mood or atmosphere). This simple adjective+noun composition follows common, cross-linguistic patterns and would be clear to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
The phrase spooky vibe starts with two simple images: spooky means scary and vibe is like a quiet feeling a place seems to give. Imagine a foggy house that seems to 'give off' a cold, strange mood, and that's why spooky vibe means 'a creepy feeling' about a place.