Advertisement
Advertisement
ghost
[ gohst ]
noun
- the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined, usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons.
Synonyms: spook, shade, revenant, wraith, phantasm, phantom, apparition
- a mere shadow or semblance; a trace:
He's a ghost of his former self.
- a remote possibility:
He hasn't a ghost of a chance.
- (sometimes initial capital letter) a spiritual being.
- Informal. ghostwriter.
- a secondary image, especially one appearing on a television screen as a white shadow, caused by poor or double reception or by a defect in the receiver.
- Also called ghost im·age [gohst, im-ij]. Photography. a faint secondary or out-of-focus image in a photographic print or negative resulting from reflections within the camera lens.
- an oral word game in which each player in rotation adds a letter to those supplied by preceding players, the object being to avoid ending a word.
- Optics. a series of false spectral lines produced by a diffraction grating with unevenly spaced lines.
- Metalworking. a streak appearing on a freshly machined piece of steel containing impurities.
- a red blood cell having no hemoglobin.
- a fictitious employee, business, etc., fabricated especially for the purpose of manipulating funds or avoiding taxes:
Investigation showed a payroll full of ghosts.
verb (used with object)
- to ghostwrite (a book, speech, etc.).
- to haunt.
- Engraving. to lighten the background of (a photograph) before engraving.
- Informal.
- to suddenly end all contact with (a person) without explanation, especially in a romantic relationship:
The guy I’ve been dating ghosted me.
- to leave (a social event or gathering) suddenly without saying goodbye:
My friend ghosted my birthday party.
- Digital Technology. to remove (comments, threads, or other digital content) from a website or online forum without informing the poster, keeping them hidden from the public but still visible to the poster.
verb (used without object)
- to ghostwrite.
- to go about or move like a ghost.
- (of a sailing vessel) to move when there is no perceptible wind.
- to pay people for work not performed, especially as a way of manipulating funds.
- Informal.
- to suddenly end all contact with a person without explanation, especially in a romantic relationship:
They dated for a month and then she ghosted.
- to leave a social event or gathering suddenly without saying goodbye:
I'm getting tired so I think I might just ghost.
- Digital Technology. to remove comments, threads, or other digital content from a website or online forum without informing the poster, keeping them hidden from the public but still visible to the poster.
adjective
- fabricated for purposes of deception or fraud:
We were making contributions to a ghost company.
ghost
/ ɡəʊst /
noun
- the disembodied spirit of a dead person, supposed to haunt the living as a pale or shadowy vision; phantom spectral
- a haunting memory
the ghost of his former life rose up before him
- a faint trace or possibility of something; glimmer
a ghost of a smile
- the spirit; soul (archaic, except in the phrase the Holy Ghost )
- physics
- a faint secondary image produced by an optical system
- a similar image on a television screen, formed by reflection of the transmitting waves or by a defect in the receiver
- See ghost word
- Also calledghost edition an entry recorded in a bibliography of which no actual proof exists
- Another name for ghostwriter See ghostwrite
- modifier falsely recorded as doing a particular job or fulfilling a particular function in order that some benefit, esp money, may be obtained
a ghost worker
- give up the ghost
- to die
- (of a machine) to stop working
verb
- See ghostwrite
- tr to haunt
- intr to move effortlessly and smoothly, esp unnoticed
he ghosted into the penalty area
Derived Forms
- ˈghostˌlike, adjective
Other Word Forms
- ghost·i·ly adverb
- ghost·like adjective
- de·ghost verb (used with object)
- un·ghost·like adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of ghost1
Word History and Origins
Origin of ghost1
Idioms and Phrases
- give up the ghost,
- to die.
- to cease to function or exist.
More idioms and phrases containing ghost
In addition to the idiom beginning with ghost , also see Chinaman's (ghost of a) chance ; give up the ghost .Synonym Study
Example Sentences
But returning as a ghost whom only Charles could see or talk to meant Sazz would be the focus of Season 4.
‘Gods of Want,’ author K-Ming Chang’s follow-up to her dazzling debut, ‘Bestiary,’ collects stories of young immigrants haunted by ghosts and longings.
Echo Park Eats is a ghost kitchen, a meal preparation hub for app-based delivery orders.
"I feel haunted by the ghosts of my grandfathers who served in World War Two. How, how, how did we used to fight fascism, and now we're homegrowing it?"
The 35-year-old from Birmingham described how visiting an independent coffee shop in London recently "everyone was staring at me, and it was like they'd almost seen a ghost".
Advertisement
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.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Browse