ghost
A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.
Adjective
- In the form be ghost: not present or involved; absent, gone.
- Thug held up a middle finger. "A'ight y'all. I'm ghost." - 2007, Abiola Abrams, Dare, page 296:
- But I don't see no competition in the game and I'm pissing on it If it ain't about the family, then I'm ghost and that's a promise - 2019, “Going Through It” (track 6), in Ignorance Is Bliss, performed by Skepta:
Origin
The noun is derived from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst, gǣst (“breath, spirit, soul, ghost”) (compare modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”). The h in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton’s Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the “Holy Ghoost”. It was likely influenced by Middle Dutch gheest, a common variant of geest. Both Caxton and his assistant Wynkyn de Worde had connections to the Low Countries. Doublet of geist. The adjective and verb are derived from the noun. The verb gained prominence in the 2010s. cognates * Danish gast (“ghost”), gejst (“enthusiasm”) * Dutch geest (“ghost, spirit”) * German Geist (“ghost, spirit”) * Luxembourgish Geescht (“ghost, spirit, spectre, phantom”) * Saterland Frisian Gäist, Jeest...
Noun
- A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.
- Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.
- He believes in ghosts.
- The mighty ghosts of our great Harries rose. - 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
- A spirit; a human soul.
- hen gins her grieued ghost thus to lament and mourne. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31:
- Enlightening the eyes and a taste for hope, emotions are felt from an inward ghost. - 2013, Kenneth Palmer, Just Thoughts: Looking at Man's Whole Self, page 20:
- If I thought that “I” referred to my inner ghost, I wouldn't be worried because a bullet can't hurt a ghost, and equally there would be no point in your shooting. - 2014, Neville Moray, Science, Cells and Souls: An...
- Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.
- not a ghost of a chance
- the ghost of an idea
- And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. - 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam,...
Synonyms: glimmer glimmering glimpse hint inkling phantom spark suggestion
- A false image, for example in a photographic print or negative, or on a television screen or radar display, or in a telescope, caused by poor or double reception or reflection (from a lens or screen).
- There was less flicker, jitter was nonexistent, and the screen pattern had been rendered far more viewworthy, with ghosts being virtually suppressed. - 2007, Albert Abramson, The History of Television, 1942 to 2000,...
Synonyms: echo
- A faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.
- Regardless of GRM used, graffiti ghosts persist. Protect cladding with surface coating or replace with graffiti resistant paint or laminate. - 1992, M. J. Whitford, Getting Rid of Graffiti, Routledge, →ISBN, page 45:
Synonyms: shadow
- Ellipsis of ghostwriter.
- I’ve written both as a ghost for experts and under my name.
- A nonexistent person invented to obtain some (typically fraudulent) benefit.
- Some health systems are plagued by "ghost" and "absent" workers. Ghost workers are nonexistent, listed in the payroll, and paid, a clear sign of corruption. - 2004, Joint Learning Initiative, Global Equity Initiative,...
- 1,500 secondary schools in Jiangxi found 125 cases of illegally collected Ghosts and Absentees fees worth $2 million. - 2008, The Asia-Pacific Human Development Report, page 63:
- Before filling out this form, please visit the Pennsic Pre-Registration Page to create your account and enter your campers and ghosts [nonexistent campers one pays for to legitimately increase the size of one's allotted...
- A dead person whose identity is stolen by another (see ghosting).
- An unresponsive user on IRC, resulting from the user's client disconnecting without notifying the server.
- This will let you open a query with NickServ again so you can remove your “ghost” from the server: […] - 2004, Paul Mutton, IRC Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools, page 31:
- A copy of a file or record.
Synonyms: backup
- An understudy.
- A covert (and deniable) agent.
Forms
Hypernyms
Hyponyms
anima wereghost apparition barghest duppy eidolon empuse ghost ghost in the machine gray ghost grey ghost haint haunt hungry ghost jumbie phantom poltergeist revenant shade specter spectre spook sprite visitant
Related
apparition banshee barghest bogeyman boggart bogie channelling chimera demon doppelganger draugr duppy ectoplasm eidolon exorcism fantom fetch ghoul haint hallucination haunt illusion incubus lamia
Derived
antighost beghost black ghost knifefish digital ghost errand ghost errand-ghost Faddeev-Popov ghost gauge ghost ghast ghost apple ghost at the feast ghostball ghostban ghost band ghost bat ghost bicycle ghost bike ghost brand ghost bullet ghost bump ghostbuster ghostbusting ghost call ghost car
Verb
- Of a disembodied soul: to appear (somewhere or to someone) in the form of an apparition; to haunt.
- since Julius Caesar, / Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted - c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies...
- To imbue (something) with a ghost-like effect or hue.
- It spread slowly up from the sea-rim, a welling upwards of pure white light, ghosting the beach with silver and drawing the grey bastions of sandstone out of formless space. - 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st...
- To continuously cause (someone or something) trouble; specifically, to continuously be in the thoughts of (someone) in a disturbing manner; to perturb, to trouble.
- To kill (someone).
- My recommendation: Do me. Don't take the chance that I'll get shiv-happy on your wannabe ass. Ghost me, Riddick. Would if I were you. Though I notice he tried to ghost my ass. When he shot up that stranger instead. -...
- He just ghosted two guys, and I never even saw him. Plan was to clean the bank, ghost the mercs, break wide through the tunnel. - 2004, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy, The Chronicles of Riddick (film):
- This may come as a shock to you, Johns, but I didn't ghost your son. He seemed set on killin' himself. Diaz was gonna take the nodes for himself and ghost me. He was gonna leave you out here alone. - 2013, Jim Wheat,...
- To gray out (a visual element) to indicate that it is unavailable.
- Whenever a menu or menu item is inappropriate or unavailable for selection, it should be ghosted. Never allow the user to select something that does nothing in response. - 1991, Amiga User Interface Style Guide, page 76:
- To forcibly disconnect (an IRC user) who is using one's reserved nickname.
- I'm so untechnical that I once ghosted a registered IRC nick and then tried to identify myself to NickServ with the valid password before actually changing my nick to the aforementioned moniker. - 2001, Luke, “to leave...
- To stop communicating with (someone) on social media, through text messages, etc., without explanation, especially as a way of ending a relationship; hence, to end a relationship with (someone) by stopping all communication without explanation.
- I've recently been trying out Tinder, and while I match with people and even chat with them everything seems to be going well, but whenever I bring up meeting IRL, they are quick to ghost me. - 2015 October 15, “Why is...
- By 6 p.m., I had a list of restaurants to try from Hamish, a chef who couldn't meet, a follow-up from Adam ("I've never seen a room at the Ace...."), and an offer from Agoraphobic Paul to come over and "have a joint and...
- Tinder knows me so well. It knows the real, inglorious version of me who copy-pasted the same joke to match 567, 568, and 569; who exchanged compulsively with 16 different people simultaneously one New Year's Day, and...
- To transfer (a prisoner) to another prison, usually without first informing the prisoner.
- His power base, however, is undermined by him being constantly, “ghosted”, or moved from prison to prison. - 2020, Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight, Prisoners on Prison Films, page 26:
- Synonym of ghostwrite (“to write (a literary work or speech), or produce (an artistic work)), in the place of someone”); also, to carry out (an artistic performance) in the place of someone.
- Here's how it went: Larry Parks as elderly Al Jolson was watching Larry Parks playing young Al Jolson in the first movie — in other words, Parks ghosting for Parks. At the same time, Jolson himself was ghosting the...
- Well, you wrote a few books, you wrote a famous play, and even that was half ghosted. - 1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 41:
- One of the few performers to triumph over ghosting was Ava Gardner in Freed's Show Boat (1951). Not only does she lip-synch with breathtaking accuracy, her performance gives the cotton-candy production its only...
Synonyms: ghostwrite
- To appear suddenly or move like a disembodied soul; specifically (often sports); also (transitive, dated) followed by the dummy subject it: to move easily and quietly without anyone noticing; to slip.
- Arsenal came into the match under severe pressure and nerves were palpable early on as Pratley was brilliantly denied by Szczesny after ghosting in front of Kieran Gibbs - 2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3 -...
- At the flank of the main stage, I took root for an hour, until a female form ghosted in front of me that I recognised from university two years before. - 2011, Mark Harnden, In the Dark Backyard, →ISBN, page 59:
- He ghosted through the door. It clanged a few seconds later as his pursuer pounded on it. - 2012, Ian Tregillis, Bitter Seeds, →ISBN:
- Followed by for: synonym of ghostwrite (“to write a literary work or speech, or produce an artistic work, in the place of someone”); also, to carry out an artistic performance in the place of someone.
- Of a sailing vessel: to sail seemingly with very little or no wind.
- They move without any visible sign of movement, like a wakeless ship ghosting over the water. - 2016, Nathanael Johnson, Unseen City, →ISBN, page 192: