Pronunciations (7)
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/ɡəʊst/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ɡoʊst/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/ɡɐʉst/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
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/ɡʱoːsʈ/
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/ɡoːsʈ/
Pronunciation notes
- India
- South
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ɡəʊst
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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ɡoʊst
Pronunciation notes
- US
Noun
A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.
He believes in ghosts.
More examples (4)
The mighty ghosts of our great Harries rose.
I thought that I had died in sleep/And was a blessed ghost
For a moment I was puzzled, but presently, of course, it struck me that he must have seen Ayesha, wrapped in her grave-like garment, and been deceived by the extraordinary undulating smoothness of her walk into a belief that she was a white ghost gliding towards him.
Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
A spirit; a human soul.
Usage- Archaic
- Countable
- Literary
- Uncountable
- Examples
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hen gins her grieued ghost thus to lament and mourne.
Enlightening the eyes and a taste for hope, emotions are felt from an inward ghost.
More examples (2)
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.
It also required four years of finding your inner ghost and becoming one with it. The inner ghost is within every person who is still alive.
Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.
Usage- broadly
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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not a ghost of a chance
the ghost of an idea
More examples (4)
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Armistead Maupin's novels reflect more awareness of, and affection for, the texture of real life than As If After Sex. Maupin's characters may get into cartoonlike adventures, but they are real people. Torchia's characters do drearily familiar things, but they are ghosts.
Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
[…] She barely answers his questions. She’s a ghost of herself. And then Hot Pie gives us the key to Arya’s whole thing this season so far: She didn’t know that Jon had defeated the Boltons.
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).
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Synonyms
- Examples
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There was less flicker, jitter was nonexistent, and the screen pattern had been rendered far more viewworthy, with ghosts being virtually suppressed.
A faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Regardless of GRM used, graffiti ghosts persist. Protect cladding with surface coating or replace with graffiti resistant paint or laminate.
A nonexistent person invented to obtain some (typically fraudulent) benefit.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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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.
1,500 secondary schools in Jiangxi found 125 cases of illegally collected Ghosts and Absentees fees worth $2 million.
More examples (1)
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 camping space].
A dead person whose identity is stolen by another (see ghosting).
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
An unresponsive user on IRC, resulting from the user's client disconnecting without notifying the server.
Usage- Internet
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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This will let you open a query with NickServ again so you can remove your “ghost” from the server: […]
A copy of a file or record.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Synonyms
An understudy.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A covert (and deniable) agent.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
An opponent in a racing game that follows a previously recorded route, allowing players to compete against previous best times.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
This is also the case for some racing games (Super Mario Kart is a good example) that allow you to compete against your ghosts, which are precise recordings of your performance.
Someone whose identity cannot be established because there are no records of such a person.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (2)
"[…]no record of a Robert, or Bobby, Maclain that fits our man's description," Kuzbec said. "No social, no driver's license, no address, no military service record. He's a ghost." Kirov did find that interesting.
"He's a ghost. No record of any kind, anywhere. I got nothing when I did a trace. I'm thinking he was either erased or he's something we don't know about." Nyk rubbed at his jaw. "If he was erased, Syn, he'd have a record[…]"
An unphysical state in a gauge theory.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (2)
The proof is well known, and independent of the metric, but to make certain we prove it here also for the case when the state vector system of an operator contains multipole^([sic]) ghosts.
Soon after, the proof of the No-Ghost Theorem, establishing that the DRM has no ghosts if d ≤ 26, was achieved independently by Brower (1972) and by Goddard and Thorn (1972).
A formerly nonexistent character that was at some point mistakenly encoded into a character set standard, which might have since become used opportunistically for some genuine purpose.
Usage- attributive
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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彁 is a ghost character from the Japanese JIS X 0208 character set.
A game in which players take turns to add a letter to a possible word, trying not to complete a word.
Usage- capitalized
- often
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (5)
GHOST. This is a spelling game. A person gives a letter, […] his next neighbor must think of a word beginning with this letter, and then say the second letter, […]
[…]word is, you win the round. But be warned : if she does have a real word in mind, you lose. Bluffing[:] It's possible to bluff in Ghost. For example, you can pretend to add a suffix to a word, even if that word doesn't exist. If no[…]
[…]played ghost, which was a popular word game at that time. Ghost was a very convenient game since it required no props, lights, or space. Each player must add a letter to the continuous formation of a word supplied by the previous player[…]
[…]played ghost, a word game. For quite a while, I spent most of my time at their house. I can't remember why I lived with them or exactly where my mother and my older brothers, Ben and John, were after Dad left.[…]
Another game in which your phonotactic instincts are brought to bear is "Ghost," a good car game for spelling geeks. In Ghost, players take turns adding a letter to a string of letters. The letter added must create the beginning of a correctly spelled word, but you don't want to add a letter which will complete[…]
White or pale.
Usage- attributive
- Countable
- Uncountable
- in names of species
- Examples
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ghost slug
ghost flower
Transparent or translucent.
Usage- attributive
- Countable
- Uncountable
- in names of species
- Examples
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ghost ant
ghost catfish
Abandoned.
Usage- attributive
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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ghost town
ghost ship
Remnant; remains.
Usage- attributive
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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ghost apples (a thin layer of ice in the shape of an apple, which forms around it and is left behind when the apple rots and falls out)
ghost fossils (impressions of things like shells that remain in the rock after the shell etc dissolves)
More examples (3)
ghost cell
ghost craters (craters that have been filled, e.g. with volcanic deposits)
ghost image
Perceived or listed but not real.
Usage- attributive
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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ghost cellphone vibration
ghost pain
More examples (3)
ghost island
ghost voter
ghost job
Of a cryptid, supernatural or extraterrestrial nature.
Usage- attributive
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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ghost rocket
ghost deer
Substitute.
Usage- attributive
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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ghost writer
ghost singer
Adjective
In the form be ghost: not present or involved; absent, gone.
Usage- not-comparable
- Slang
- Examples
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Thug held up a middle finger. "A'ight y'all. I'm ghost."
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
Verb
Of a disembodied soul: to appear (somewhere or to someone) in the form of an apparition; to haunt.
Usage- Literary
- Poetic
- Transitive
- Examples
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since Julius Caesar, / Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted
To imbue (something) with a ghost-like effect or hue.
Usage- Literary
- Poetic
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
To continuously cause (someone or something) trouble; specifically, to continuously be in the thoughts of (someone) in a disturbing manner; to perturb, to trouble.
Usage- broadly
- Figurative
- Transitive
To kill (someone).
Usage- broadly
- Figurative
- Slang
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
More examples (2)
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.
RONALD: ”They tried to ghost your girl Isabel right here”. WES CHANDLER (played by Ron Perlman): ”Tried to ‘ghost’ her?” RONALD: ”Merk. 86. Put her down in the dirt. You feel me?”
To gray out (a visual element) to indicate that it is unavailable.
Usage- broadly
- Figurative
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
To forcibly disconnect (an IRC user) who is using one's reserved nickname.
Usage- Internet
- broadly
- Figurative
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
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.
Usage- broadly
- Figurative
- Slang
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (3)
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.
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 a cuddle." I'd confirmed a walking tour of Greenwich from Max, who ghosted.
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 then ghosted 16 of them.
He had texted, called, and emailed a bunch since then. I hadn't meant to ghost, but it was just easier not to deal with it.
To transfer (a prisoner) to another prison, usually without first informing the prisoner.
Usage- UK usage
- broadly
- Figurative
- Transitive
- Examples
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His power base, however, is undermined by him being constantly, “ghosted”, or moved from prison to prison.
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.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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 voices for both of them.
Well, you wrote a few books, you wrote a famous play, and even that was half ghosted.
More examples (2)
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 underpinning of realism.
The current issue carries an extraordinary 26,000-word piece by Andrew O'Hagan on his failed attempt to ghost the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's memoir, which was trending on Twitter before copies even hit the news-stands.
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.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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
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.
He ghosted through the door. It clanged a few seconds later as his pursuer pounded on it.
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.
Usage- Intransitive
Of a sailing vessel: to sail seemingly with very little or no wind.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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They move without any visible sign of movement, like a wakeless ship ghosting over the water.
Apparently only in the writings of the Dutch-English physician Gideon Harvey (c. 1636–1640 – c. 1700–1702): to die, to expire.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
Noun
a mental representation of some haunting experience
- Examples
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he looked like he had seen a ghost
it aroused specters from his past
a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else
- Synonyms
the visible disembodied soul of a dead person
a suggestion of some quality
- Broader terms
- Examples
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there was a touch of sarcasm in his tone
he detected a ghost of a smile on her face
Verb
move like a ghost
- Examples
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The masked men ghosted across the moonlit yard
haunt like a ghost; pursue
- Broader terms
- Examples
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Fear of illness haunts her
write for someone else
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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How many books have you ghostwritten so far?