Ghastly

Definition: Ghastly

Ghastly

Adjective

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".

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".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "ghastly" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Synonyms: Ghastly

Dejection

Lower, look downcast, frown, pout; hang down the head; pull a long face, make a long face; laugh on the wrong side of the mouth; grin a ghastly smile; look blue, look like a drowned man; lay to heart, take to heart.

Fear

Inspiring fear; Verb: alarming; formidable, redoubtable; perilous; (danger); portentous; fearful; dread, dreadful; fell; dire, direful; shocking; terrible, terrific; tremendous; horrid, horrible, horrific; ghastly; awful, awe-inspiring; revolting; (painful); Gorgonian.

Ugliness

Verb: be ugly; Adjective: look ill, grin horribly a ghastly smile, make faces.

Squalid, haggard; grim, grim faced, grim visaged; grisly, ghastly; ghost like, death like; cadaverous, grewsome, gruesome.

Crosswords: Ghastly

Is, is that Mrs. Frank Cummings? Doesn't she look ghastly, I thought she was dead (Harvey; writing credit: Mary Chase;)

But in my case he fosters a ghastly illusion and I come to you as his friend rather than turning the matter over to my solicitor (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution; writing credit: Arthur Conan Doyle; Nicholas Meyer)

It was ghastly. (Carrington; writing credit: Christopher Hampton; Michael Holroyd)

What it did to a friend of mine is too ghastly to repeat (Garfield in the Rough; writing credit: Jim Davis)

We are not concerned with motives, with the higher ethics. We are concerned only with cutting down crime and with relieving the ghastly congestion in our prisons (A Clockwork Orange; writing credit: Stanley Kubrick)

Blood of Ghastly Horror (1972)

The Ghastly Ones (1968)

Sir Graves Ghastly Presents (1967)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Beastly Boys & Ghastly Girls (reference)

• Ghostly and Ghastly Stories of South Florida (reference)

• Pokemon Adventures Volume 5: The Ghastly Ghosts (reference)

• Scooby-Doo And The Ghastly Giant (reference)

• The Ghastly Glasses (reference)

  (more book examples)

Theater & Movies

• Blood of Ghastly Horror (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music

• Ghastly Grooves [K-Tel] (reference)

• Ghastly Things (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

A ghastly view of fish squeezed through the net by the tons of fish trapped within the main body of the net. Credit: Fisheries.

"The ruins at Johnstown" after the flood May 31, 1889; clearing away the wreck, B.&O. R.R.--a ghastly find / Rothengatter & Dillon, photo's. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

There was wild and ghastly scenery all around her, and a home and comfort nowhere

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "ghastly": ghastly pale ♦ ghastly wound ♦ grin horribly a ghastly smile. Additional references.

Beginning with "ghastly": ghastly-hued.

Afrikaans

onaangenaam (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty), afgryslik (agonizing, dismal, dreary, hideous, horrible, nasty), aaklig (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, hideous, horrible, nasty). (various references)

Albanian

në mënyrë të kobshme, i zbehtë (anaemic, anemic, ashy, cadaverous, dim, dingy, light, livid, pale, pallid, paly, peaked, wan), i kobshëm (ghoulish). (various references)

Arabic 

‏مروع (alarmed, appalling, awful, dreadful, frightened, frightening, frightful, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrific, horrified, horrifying, macabre, panic stricken, scared, shocked, shocking, startled, startling, terrified, terrifying, terror stricken, terrorized), ‏ضخم (astronomic, astronomical, awful, big, bulking, bulky, bull, colossal, colossus, considerable, distend, elephantine, enormous, exaggerate, extend, exuberant, fat, gargantuan, giant, gigantic, goodly, grand, great, handsome, heavy, hefty, heroic, huge, hulking, husky, immense, intense, jumbo, large, leviathan, liberal, mammoth, mass, massive, mighty, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, outsize, oversize, palatial, phenomenal, powerful, prodigious, proud, round, royal, sizable, smart, strapping, strong, stupendous, sublime, swingeing, tall, tidy, titan, titanic, towering, tremendous, vast, voluminous, whacking, whopping), ‏شنيع (atrocious, awful, crying, enormous, foul, ghoulish, gruesome, heinous, hideous, monstrous, nefarious, obnoxious, outrageous, ugly), ‏شبحي (ghostly, spectral, spiritual, spooky). (various references)

Bulgarian 

страхотен (awesome, devilish, direful, fearsome, formidable, frantic, frightful, furious, great, morbid, tremendous, unearthly), ужасно (almighty, awfully, cruelly, damn, damnably, damned, frightfully, miserably, remarkably, roaring, shocking, terribly, terrifically, thundering, to death), ужасен (aghast, appalling, awful, bloodcurdling, deadly, desperate, deuced, devastating, dire, direful, dreadful, eldritch, execrable, fearful, fearsome, frantic, frightful, furious, great, grievous, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, horror-stricken, lurid, macabre, miserable, morbid, murderous, planet-stricken, planet-struck, precious, sad, septic, terrible, terrific, towering, tremendous, unholy, unmentionable, vicious, wretched), отвратително (beastly, cursedly, damnably, disgustingly, foully, offensively, queasily, shocking), мъртвешки (cadaveric, cadaverous, deathlike, deathly), противен (abhorrent, abominable, adverse, bastard, contrary, cross, disagreeable, foul, fulsome, gross, horrid, loud, mucky, nameless, nasty, noisome, objectionable, obnoxious, odious, offensive, opposing, pestilential, rebarbative, repugnant, repulsive, scarlet, sickening, sickly, sorry, sour, squalid, swinish, ugly, unattractive, unfavorable, unfavourable, ungracious, ungrateful, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, vexatious, vile, villainous). (various references)

Chinese 

阴森可怕. (various references)

Czech

strašný (awful, chronic, dire, distressing, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightful, gruesome, hairy, hellish, hideous, hopeless, horrible, horrific, terrible, tremendous), příšerný (appalling, atrocious, blinding, chronic, creepy, damnable, dreadful, excruciating, fearful, fiendish, grisly, gruesome, horrendous, terrible, terrific, unholy, unspeakable, villainous, weird), otřesný (appalling, atrocious, awful, fearful, fiendish, harrowing, hateful, staggering, ugly, villainous), ohavný (abominable, despicable, detestable, execrable, heinous, hideous, horrendous, horrid, odious, ugly, unspeakable, vile, villainous), hrozný (abysmal, appalling, atrocious, awful, damnable, dire, dreadful, excruciating, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightful, grim, hateful, hellish, horrible, mortal, terrible, terrific, tremendous), hrùzný (apocalyptic, awesome, creepy, harrowing, horrid, horrific, horrifying, scary), bledý (bloodless, pale, pallid, pasty faced, peaky, sallow, sickly, wan). (various references)

Danish

ubehagelig (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty), afskyelig (dismal, dreary, hideous, horrible, nasty). (various references)

Dutch

vervelend (bleak, boring, bothersome, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty, stodgy, tiresome, weary), verdrietelýk (bleak, deplorable, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty, pitiable, sad), onaangenaam (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty), naar (about, according as, according to, along, as, bleak, by, dismal, dreary, for, grisly, horrible, ill, long for, nasty, sick, to, toward, towards, untranslated, unwell, yearn), luguber (gaunt, gruesome, horrible), huiveringwekkend (gaunt, gruesome, horrible), doodsbleek, akelig (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty), afschuwelýk (abhorrent, abominable, agonizing, alien, awful, dismal, dreary, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty), afgrijselijk (abominable, awful, hideous, horrible), afgrýselýk (abhorrent, abominable, agonizing, alien, awful, dismal, dreary, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty). (various references)

Esperanto

timtremiga (gaunt, gruesome, horrible), terurega (hideous, horrible), mortpala, malagrabla (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty), abomena (dismal, dreary, hideous, horrible, nasty). (various references)

Farsi 

مخوف (Gruesome, Hideous, Horrible, Ugsome), هولناک (Terrible, Terrific), ترسناک (Dire, Grim, Hideous, Horrid, Lurid, Macabre, Nightmarish, Redoubtable, Terrible, Terrific, Tremendous, Ugsome), رنگ پریده (Colourless, Lurid, Pale, Pallid, Sallowish, Wan), شوم (Dire, Grim, Inauspicious, Infelicitous, Ominous, Unlucky). (various references)

Finnish

kauhistava (appalling, terrifying), kamala (dreadful, frightful), kaamea (grisly, gruesome, uncanny). (various references)

French

horrible, repoussant, abominable. (various references)

Frisian

aaklik (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty), ôfgryslik (abhorrent, abominable, agonizing, alien, awful, gruesome, hideous, horrible). (various references)

German

grausam (atrocious, barbarous, callous, cruel, cruelly, ferocious, heartless, sanguinary, savage), grässlich (abominable, abominably, atrocious, awful, damnable, damnably, dire, direful, dreadful, excruciating, excruciatingly, grisly, heinous, hideous, horrible, horribly, horrid, horridly, infernal, miserable, miserably, monstrous, nauseating, putrid, terrible, terribly). (various references)

Greek 

κάτωχροσ (very pale), νεκρώδησ, ωχρόσ (haggard, pale, pallid, sallow, wan, yellowish), φρικαλέοσ (grisly, horrid), φρικτόσ (appalling, atrocious, dire, direful, dismals, gruesome, hideous, horrible), φριχτός (grim), άρρωστος (ill, sick), απαίσιοσ (abominable, dreadful, execrable, flagrant, horrid, ominous, sinister, stinking). (various references)

Hungarian

utálatos (abhorrent, abominable, alien, awful, detestable, dismal, distasteful, dreary, execrable, groaty, grotty, gruesome, hateful, hideous, horrible, loathful, loathsome, monstrous, nasty, nauseating, obnoxious, odious, poisonous, rank), szörnyű (appalling, dire, dreadful, egregious, fearsome, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, morbid, nefandous, terrible, terrific), rettentõen, rettenetes (astounding, awful, dreadful, hideous, horrible, horrific, monstrous, monstrously, overwhelming, scary, terrible, terrific), kísérteties (eerie, gaunt, ghostly, ghoulish, lurid, macabre, spectral, spookish, spooky, withered). (various references)

Icelandic

viðbjóðslegur (dismal, dreary, hideous, horrible, nasty), hræðilegur (abysmal, dismal, dreadful, dreary, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, terrible), óþægilegur (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty). (various references)

Indonesian

menakutkan (alarm, awful, chiller, daunt, dreadful, ercy, horrible, horrify, terrify). (various references)

Italian

orribile (abhorrent, abominable, agonizing, alien, awful, beastly, dreadful, grim, grisly, gruesome, hideous, horrible, horrific, macabre, revolting, shocking), spiacevole (bleak, disconcerting, dismal, displeasing, dreary, embarassing, evil, grisly, horrible, invidious, miserable, nasty, regrettable, sticky, uncomfortable, unpleasant), sgradevole (bad, bleak, disagreeable, dismal, distasteful, dreary, grisly, horrible, invidious, nasty, objectionable, obnoxious, unpalatable, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unsightly), orrendo (abhorrent, abominable, agonizing, alien, awful, dismal, dreadful, dreary, frightful, grisly, gruesome, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, nasty, revolting, terrible), abominevole (abominable, beastly, dismal, dreary, hideous, horrible, nasty, nefarious). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

鬼気迫る (bloodcurdling), 鬼気 (dreadful), 悽絶 (extremely weird, gruesome, lurid), 不気味　 (eerie, ominous, uncanny, weird), 不気味 (eerie, ominous, uncanny, weird). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

ききせまる (bloodcurdling), きき (brilliance, crisis, damage, demolishing, destroying, disliking, displeasure, dreadful, effective, effectiveness, efficacy, machinery and tools, offense, the Kojiki and Nihonshoki, work), ぶきみ (eerie, ominous, uncanny, weird), せいぜつ (extremely, extremely weird, gruesome, lurid, violently). (various references)

Manx

scaanagh (crannied, ghostlike, ghostly, mirrorlike, representative, spectral, specular, spooky), grouw (dark, dark-looking, dejected, dismal, forbidding, gloomy, glum, grim, surly), eajee (atrocious, filthy, monstrous, odious). (various references)

Norwegian

grufull, uhyggelig (grim, grisly, lurid), ubehagelig (bleak, disagreeable, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty), likblek. (various references)

Papiamen

feroso (abysmal, dismal, dreadful, dreary, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, terrible), feros (abysmal, dismal, dreadful, dreary, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, terrible), desagradabel (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty), abominabel (abhorrent, abject, abominable, abysmal, alien, awful, disdainful, disgusting, dismal, dreadful, dreary, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, nauseous, terrible). (various references)

Pig Latin

astlyghay.(various references)

Portuguese

terrivelmente (appallingly, awfully, mortally, shocking), sinistro (accident, baleful, casualty, dismal, ebon, eery, forbidding, grisly, lurid, ominous, sinister, uncanny, untoward), pavoroso (awesome, dread, gruesome), pavorosamente, lívido (blue, livid, lurid, pale, pallid, perse, sallow, tallowy, wan), lúrido, horrorosamente, horrível (abysmal, awful, direful, dismal, dread, dreadful, dreary, gruesome, horrible, nasty, terrible, unholy), enjoado (airsick, bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty, nauseated, qualmish, queasy, seasick, squeamish), desagradável (bad, beastly, bleak, brackish, crabbed, desagreeable, disagreeable, disgusting, dismal, displeasing, distasteful, dreadful, dreary, fearful, forbidding, foul, frightful, grisly, horrible, invidious, nasty, objectionable, obnoxious, offensive, repellent, seamy, ugly, uncomfortable, uncongenial, undesirable, ungrateful, unlovely, unpleasant, unsavory, unsavoury, unthankful, untoward, unwelcome, unwished). (various references)

Romanian

grozav (a, almighty, atrocious, awful, awfully, bally, beastly, bully, classy, clinking, Dandy, desperate, dreadful, exceedingly, excessively, famous, fell, first rate, formidable, frightful, gee, grand, horrible, horrid, immense, immensely, jolly, killing, like blazes, like hell, lovely, mad, magnificent, mightily, nicely, nifty, plush, plushy, proper, ripping, some, stunning, swell, terrible, terribly, terrific, thundering, topping, tremendous, tremendously, uncommonly, vastly, whacking), groaznic (appalling, awful, awfully, baleful, desperate, dire, dreadful, foul, frightful, grim, groovy, gruesome, horrendous, horrent, horrible, horribly, horrid, howling, lousy, miserable, miserably, monstrous, sad, scary, shocking, terrible, terribly, vile), galben (jaundiced, wan, xanthous, yellow, yellowish), teribil (awful, awfully, damnably, direful, dreadful, exceedingly, excruciating, extraordinary, fearsome, formidable, frightful, like old boot, terrible, terribly, terrific, tremendous), stins (departed, dim, extinct, extinguished, faded, faint, out, sickly, withered), scârbos (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, bloody, detestable, disagreeable, disgusting, dreadful, foul, fulsome, loathsome, loathsomely, nasty, nauseous, repugnant, repulsive, sickening, unpleasant, verminous, vile), palid ca moartea, forţat (constrained, far fetched, forced, strained), cadaveric (cadaverous, deadly), înspãimântãtor (appalling, awsome, dread, dreadful, fearful, formidable, frightful, frightfully, ghostlike, horrible, horrid, howling, terrible, terrific, tremendous, unearthly). (various references)

Russian 

страшный (blood-curding, dire, direful, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightening, frightful, grisly, hair raising, hair-raising, hairy, hideous, horrible, parlous, spooky, terrible, tremendous), страшно (confoundedly, fearfully, frightfully), ужасный (appalling, atrocious, awful, blood-curding, chilling, chronic, damnable, damned, desperate, dire, direful, dreadful, fearful, formidable, frightful, grisly, gruelling, gruesome, hair raising, hair-raising, hairy, heinous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, macabre, perishing, spooky, terrible, tragic, unearthy), ужасно (atrociously, awesomely, awfully, bally, beastly, confoundedly, damnably, dooms, fearfully, frightfully, miserably, terribly), жуткий (eerie, eery, eldritch, ghoulish, grim, grisly, gruesome, macabre, scary, spooky, terrible, terrifying, uncanny). (various references)

Scottish

draoch (a fretful or ghastly look). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

grozno (plaguy), grozan (atrocious, awful, creepy, dire, direful, grisly, horrendous, lurid, macabre, plaguy, terrible). (various references)

Spanish

horrible (abhorrent, abominable, agonizing, alien, appalling, awful, bleak, dire, direful, dirty, dismal, dread, dreary, evil, formidably, foul, frightful, grim, grisly, gruesome, hellish, hideous, horrible, horrid, lousy, lurid, moldy, mouldy, nasty, shocking, stinking, terrible, terror, vile, wicked), lúgubre (bleak, dark, dismal, dreary, forbidding, gash, gaunt, grisly, horrible, lugubrious, mournful, nasty), horroroso (abhorrent, abominable, agonizing, alien, awful, dismal, dreadful, dreary, gruesome, harrowing, hideous, horrible, horrid, horrifying, nasty, wicked). (various references)

Swedish

spöklik (eerie, eery, gaunt, ghostlike, ghostly, lurid, spectral, spooky, uncanny). (various references)

Thai

น่ากลัวมาก. (various references)

Turkish

zoraki (constrained, far fetched, forced, forcedly, stiff, strained, studied), korkunç (appalling, awesome, awful, cruel, desperate, dire, direful, disastrous, disgusting, dreadfull, eldritch, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightening, frightful, ghoulish, gory, grim, grisly, gruesome, haircurling, hair-raiser, hellish, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, lurid, monstrous, redoubtable, scary, shocking, sickening, terrible, terrific, terrifying), feci (disastrous, grievous, tragic), dehşetle (direfully, direly, mortally), berbat (abominable, abysmal, accursed, accurst, appalling, atrocious, awful, bad, badly, beastly, bum, chronic, crappy, dashed, destroyed, deuced, devilish, disgusting, dread, dreadfull, egregious, execrable, fierce, flagitious, frightful, grotty, hell, hell of, helluva, horrible, horrid, indifferent, infamous, infernal, ropy, rotten, screwed, shocking, sickening, spoilt, sticky, stinking, terrible, ungodly, unsavory, unsavoury, vicious, vile, villainous, violent, wretched), aynasiz (bleak, dismal, dreary, grisly, horrible, nasty), ölü gibi solgun. (various references)

Ukrainian

страшний (awful, blood-curdling, dread, frantic, frightful, grisly, hair raising, horrible, horrid, terrible), мертвотний, примарний (apparitional, dreamlike, dreamy, elfish, elvish, ghostly, illusive, illusory, phantasmal, spectral, spooky, visional), похмурий (adust, bleak, cheerless, dark, darksome, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dull, dusky, frowning, gash, gaunt, gloomy, glum, grave, gruff, hard-faced, inhospitable, lowering, macabre, mopish, mournful, murk, nightly, obscure, overcast, sable, saturnine, sepulchral, shadowy, stygian, sullen, surly, tenebrous). (various references)

Vietnamese 

ghê sợ (fearful, frightful, frightfuly, grisly), ghê khiếp tái mét, ghê khiếp (fearful, frightfuly, horrific), tái mét (livid, lurid), nhợt nhạt như người chết rùng rợn. (various references)

acidus, amarus, luridus. (various references)

Misspellings

"Ghastly" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aghastly, fastly, gasly, gastly, ghasyly, ghazal, Ghazala, Ghostley, Goatly, Guastalla, hastly. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-2 letters: ghast, ghats, halts, hasty, hylas, laths, lathy, salty, shalt, shaly, slaty, stagy.

-3 letters: agly, alts, ashy, gals, gash, gast, gats, gays, ghat, hags, halt, hast, hats, hays, hyla, lags, lash, last, lath, lats, lays, sagy, salt, shag, shay, slag, slat, slay, stag, stay, tags.

-4 letters: als, alt, ash, ays, gal, gas, gat, gay.

+2 letters: daylights.

+3 letters: ghastfully, lengthways, playthings, scathingly, straightly.

+4 letters: eschatology, hairstyling, playwrights, stylography.

+5 letters: daylightings, distraughtly, farsightedly, hairstylings, hesitatingly, polygraphist, shatteringly.