Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Ghastly"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Ghastly \Ghast"ly\, a. [Compar. {Ghastlier}; superl.
{Ghastliest}.] [OE. gastlich, gastli, fearful, causing fear,
fr. gasten to terrify, AS. g[ae]stan. Cf. {Aghast}, {Gast},
{Gaze}, {Ghostly}.]
1. Like a ghost in appearance; deathlike; pale; pallid;
dismal.
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang.
--Coleridge.
His face was so ghastly that it could scarcely be
recognized. --Macaulay.
2. Horrible; shocking; dreadful; hideous.
Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail.
--Milton.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Ghastly \Ghast"ly\, adv.
In a ghastly manner; hideously.
Staring full ghastly like a strangled man. --Shak.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
ghastly
adj 1: shockingly repellent; inspiring horror; "ghastly wounds";
"the grim aftermath of the bombing"; "the grim task of
burying the victims"; "a grisly murder"; "gruesome
evidence of human sacrifice"; "macabre tales of war
and plague in the Middle ages"; "macabre tortures
conceived by madmen" [syn: {grim}, {grisly}, {gruesome},
{macabre}]
2: gruesomely indicative of death or the dead; "a charnel smell
came from the chest filled with dead men's bones";
"ghastly shrieks"; "the sepulchral darkness of the
catacombs" [syn: {charnel}, {sepulchral}]
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