Ghast·ly a. [Compar. Ghastlier superl. Ghastliest.]
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.
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]
[also: ghastliest, ghastlier]