ghastly
Americanadjective
-
shockingly frightful or dreadful; horrible.
a ghastly murder.
-
resembling a ghost, especially in being very pale.
a ghastly look to his face.
- Synonyms:
- cadaverous, pallid, deathlike
-
terrible; very bad.
a ghastly error.
adverb
-
Also ghastlily ghastily in a ghastly manner; horribly; terribly.
-
with a deathlike quality.
adjective
-
informal very bad or unpleasant
-
deathly pale; wan
-
informal extremely unwell; ill
they felt ghastly after the party
-
terrifying; horrible
adverb
-
unhealthily; sickly
ghastly pale
-
archaic in a horrible or hideous manner
Usage
What does ghastly mean? Ghastly means dreadful, horrible, terrible, or shockingly frightful.Ghastly is more common in everyday usage in the U.K. than in the U.S., but it is used in the same ways in both places. It can be applied in a range of serious and not-so-serious ways.Ghastly can also mean resembling a ghost due to being very pale. Less commonly, it can be used as an adverb.Example: Our dinner was positively ghastly—all the food was underseasoned and overcooked until it was nearly inedible.
Other Word Forms
- ghastliness noun
Etymology
Origin of ghastly
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Those usual characteristics of the Brisbane pitch, namely pace and bounce, should suit England's battery of pace bowlers, as they did in the first innings in Perth before things took a ghastly turn.
From BBC
"Really ghastly," says Dame Margaret Beckett, who was number two under John Smith in the 1990s.
From BBC
The commissioner described Panorama's footage, obtained by secret filming, as "vile to watch", calling the officers involved "ghastly, ghastly individuals".
From BBC
Kirk’s death was ghastly and contemptible, but in a media environment and country conditioned to move on, its shock is already beginning to wear off.
From Salon
"Surely part of the definition of being in a free society is people say ghastly things, offensive things, awful things, ugly things, and we don't sweep them under the carpet," he has said.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
