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GHOSTLY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: ghostlier , ghostliest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Resembling or characteristic of a phantom
Example:
spiritual tappings at a seance
Synonyms:
apparitional; ghostlike; ghostly; phantasmal; spectral; spiritual
Classified under:
Similar:
supernatural (not existing in nature or subject to explanation according to natural laws; not physical or material)
Derivation:
ghost (the visible disembodied soul of a dead person)
ghostliness (strangeness by virtue of being mysterious and inspiring fear)
Context examples:
Among the more unique data sets collected by Juno during its first scientific sweep by Jupiter was that acquired by the mission's Radio/Plasma Wave Experiment (Waves), which recorded ghostly- sounding transmissions emanating from above the planet.
(Jupiter's North Pole Unlike Anything Encountered in Solar System, NASA)
Like dents in a bumper, we can see the damage by looking for ghostly trails of dust extending outward from the disk, showing that another galaxy might have passed through, dragging dust from our galaxy along for the ride.
(All we are is dust in the interstellar wind, NSF)
Once there appeared a strange optical effect: when he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Over the whiteness and silence brooded a ghostly calm.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
And so, exalted, upborne by a sense of power, I turned my back on the howling inferno and climbed to the deck, where the fog drifted ghostly through the night and the air was sweet and pure and quiet.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
The door nearest me opened, and a servant came out,—a woman of between thirty and forty; a set, square-made figure, red-haired, and with a hard, plain face: any apparition less romantic or less ghostly could scarcely be conceived.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Shadowy effigies in armor stood on either side, a dead silence reigned, the lamp burned blue, and the ghostly figure ever and anon turned its face toward him, showing the glitter of awful eyes through its white veil.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
In appearing before you to denounce probably the most consummate Villain that has ever existed, Mr. Micawber, without looking off the letter, pointed the ruler, like a ghostly truncheon, at Uriah Heep, I ask no consideration for myself.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Then I caught the patient's eye and followed it, but could trace nothing as it looked into the moonlit sky except a big bat, which was flapping its silent and ghostly way to the west.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
