ghastly
- 01 C2 Proficiency
adj.looking very pale, white, and unhealthy, like a ghost.
adj.resembling a ghost in appearance; deathly pale or pallid.
Simple“He looked ghastly after the long flight and clearly needed to sleep.”
In context“The patient's face had a ghastly hue that concerned the nursing staff, prompting an immediate review of his vitals.”
- 02 C1 Advanced
adj.extremely bad, unpleasant, or annoying.
adj.extremely unwell or disagreeable; often used as a strong intensifier for negative experiences.
Simple“The weather during our holiday was absolutely ghastly.”
In context“She found the decor in the hotel lobby to be quite ghastly, noting that the clashing colours were a strain on the eyes.”
Teacher's tipIn British English, this is often used to exaggerate how much you dislike something, similar to 'dreadful'.
Antonyms - 03 C2 Proficiency
adv.in a way that is shocking or very pale.
adv.in a manner that is terrifying, shocking, or death-like.
Simple“The white makeup made his face look ghastly pale under the stage lights.”
In context“The moon shone ghastly through the mist, illuminating the ruins in a way that made the hikers feel uneasy.”
UsageUsually modifies adjectives related to appearance or light.
Synonyms
From a conflation of gastly, from Middle English gastly, from gasten (from Old English gǣstan (“to torment, frighten”)) + -ly, and ghostly (which was also spelt gastlich in Middle English). Equivalent to ghast/gast + -ly. Spelling with gh developed in the 16th century due to the conflation.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.