What is "ghastliest"

Ghastly \Ghast"ly\, a. [Compar. Ghastlier; superl. Ghastliest.] [OE. gastlich, gastli, fearful, causing fear, fr. gasten to terrify, AS. g[ae]stan. Cf. Aghast, Gast, Gaze, Ghostly.]

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.

a. (en-superlative of: ghastly)

See ghastly

1. adj. 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]

3. [also: ghastliest, ghastlier]