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单词 ghost
释义

ghostn.adj.

Brit. /ɡəʊst/, U.S. /ɡoʊst/
Forms: early Old English gæsð, Old English gaas (Northumbrian, probably transmission error), Old English gas (perhaps transmission error), Old English gastastes (genitive, transmission error), Old English gasð (perhaps transmission error), Old English–early Middle English gæst, Old English (Northumbrian)–Middle English gaast, Old English–Middle English gast (northern in later use), early Middle English ȝast, early Middle English–1500s gost, Middle English gaste (northern and north midlands), Middle English goest, Middle English goist (east midlands), Middle English gosthe, Middle English igaste (in a copy of an Old English charter), Middle English–1500s goost, Middle English–1500s gooste, Middle English–1500s goste, late Middle English–1500s ghoost, late Middle English–1500s 1900s (English regional (southern))– ghooste, late Middle English–1600s ghoste, late Middle English– ghost, 1500s–1600s ghoast, 1500s–1600s goast, 1700s ghest, 1800s ghos (U.S. regional regional, in African-American usage), 1800s– ghos' (U.S. regional, in African-American usage); Scottish pre-1700 gaast, pre-1700 gast, pre-1700 gayste, pre-1700 gest, pre-1700 ghoist, pre-1700 goist, pre-1700 goost, pre-1700 gost, pre-1700 goste, pre-1700 1700s– gaist, pre-1700 1700s– ghaist, pre-1700 1800s gaste, 1800s g'aist, 1800s–1900s guest, 1900s gase (in sense A. 16).
Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian gāst (West Frisian geast ), Old Dutch gēst , gāst (Middle Dutch geest , gheest , Dutch geest ), Old Saxon gēst (Middle Low German geist , gēst ), Old High German geist (Middle High German geist , German Geist ), derivative (with dental suffix) of the same Germanic base as Old Icelandic *geiski fear (implied in geiskafullr full of fear), Gothic usgaisjan to terrify, usgaisnan to be terrified (compare gast v.1) < the same Indo-European base as Avestan zōiš- (in zōišnu shivering, trembling), and (with dental suffix) Sanskrit hīḍ- to be angry, heḍa anger, and (with additional superlative suffix) Avestan zōiždišta most terrible.Old English. The Old English form gǣst (with i-mutation of the stem vowel) has a restricted distribution, but is frequent in some texts, including two poetic manuscripts. The currency of such a by-form with i-mutation may indicate that the word was originally an es- , os- stem (compare discussion of forms at rother n.). Variant forms. Forms with initial gh- may show influence from Middle Dutch gheest , a common variant of geest . In English, such forms are first found in early printed texts of the late 15th cent. (alongside forms without -h- ), especially in books produced by Caxton and de Worde, both of whom had connections to the Low Countries. This type of form became established gradually in the course of the 16th cent. The form igaste (in a 15th-cent. copy of an Old English charter) probably results from analogy with words in y- prefix. Specific senses. With many early uses compare classical Latin spīritus spirit n., which has a similar semantic range, especially in the context of Christian religion and philosophy. In some of these senses (e.g. senses A. 2 and A. 4), spirit n. is now more common; compare Holy Ghost n. and Holy Spirit n. With senses A. 7 and A. 9 compare classical Latin mānes spirits of the dead, (also) mortal remains (see manes n.).
A. n.
I. An animating or vital principle; a person's spirit or soul.
1. The animating or vital principle in humans and animals; that which gives life to the body, in contrast to its purely material being; the life force, the breath of life. Now rare except in expressions relating to death, esp. to give up the ghost.See also to gasp up the ghost at gasp v. Phrases 1, ghost of life at Phrases 2a.In the sense ‘the breath of life’ occasionally identified with physical breath; cf. branch A. II., breath n. Phrases 1a(a).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun]
souleOE
lifeOE
spiritusOE
bloodOE
ghostOE
life and soulOE
quickship?c1225
quicknessc1230
breatha1300
spirita1325
spark1382
naturec1385
sparkle1388
livelinessa1398
rational soula1398
spiracle1398
animal spirit?a1425
vital spiritc1450
soul of the world1525
candle1535
fire1576
three souls1587
vitality?1592
candlelight1596
substance1605
vivacity1611
animality1615
vividity1616
animals1628
life spring1649
archeus1651
vital1670
spirituosity1677
springs of life1681
microcosmetor1684
vital force1702
vital spark (also flame)1704
stamen1718
vis vitae1752
prana1785
Purusha1785
jiva1807
vital force1822
heartbeat1828
world-soul1828
world-spirit1828
life energy1838
life force1848
ghost soul1869
will to live1871
biogen1882
ki1893
mauri1897
élan vital1907
orgone1942
OE Stowe Psalter cxxxiv. 17 Neque enim est spiritus in ore ipsorum : ne ne soðlice is gast on muðe heora.
OE Wærferð tr. Gregory Dialogues (Corpus Cambr.) (1900) iv. xxxii. 307 Þa æt nehstan wæs geþuht, þæt fram him eallinga se liflica gast ut eode, & se lichama þær wunode orsawle.
c1175 ( Ælfric's Homily on Nativity of Christ (Bodl. 343) in A. O. Belfour 12th Cent. Homilies in MS Bodl. 343 (1909) 86 God sylf ȝyfæð alle monnum lif & gast.
c1225 (?c1200) St. Juliana (Bodl.) l. 566 Ha ȝeide to godd & walde aȝeouen hire gast in to his honden.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 5188 His gast bigan to quiken egain.
c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy (2002) f. 126v He gird to the ground & the gost past.
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) iii. xii. sig. Pp7v But when indeede she found his ghost was gone, then Sorrowe lost the witte of vtterance.
1678 E. Fowler Vindic. Friendly Conf. 44 They suffer hunger, and cold, needs and necessities, the tormenting diseases, and anguishes of the body: and at last yield up the Ghost to Death it self.
1791 M. A. Meilan Holy Writ Familiarized IV. 199 I should have poured out tears of friendship at the footstones of his cross, while he was yielding up the ghost.
1884 Puck (N.Y.) 5 Mar. 6/2 He gasped up the ghost.
2015 C. J. Hallman Year of Goose ii. 48 He lay there for many minutes, and in one of those many minutes, his ghost left his body.
2. The spiritual or abstract part of a person, as distinct from the physical part; a person's emotional, mental, and moral nature. Also: (esp. in a Christian context) the spiritual part of a person considered as a moral agent and in relation to God; a person's soul. Cf. spirit n. 2a, ghost in the machine at Phrases 2f.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > spirituality > mind, soul, spirit, heart > [noun]
wombeOE
moodeOE
heartOE
inner manc1000
soulOE
ghostOE
sprite1340
inwit1382
consciencec1384
spiritc1384
minda1387
spirtc1415
esperite1477
inward man1526
pneuma1559
esprite1591
internala1594
interior1600
entelechy1603
inside1615
psyche1648
sprit1653
citta1853
undersoul1868
Geist1871
heart-mind1959
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > seat of the emotions > [noun]
souleOE
ghostOE
steadc1200
OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xxvi. 41 Witudlice se gast is hræd [L. spiritus quidem promptus est] & þæt flæsc ys untrum.
a1200 (?OE) MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 189 Ðe lichame winneð toȝenes þe gost.
a1300 (c1275) Physiologus (1991) l. 386 I mene ðe stedefast, In riȝte leue mid fles & gast.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 18602 Quils his licam lai vnder stan, In gast es he til hell gan.
a1500 Lancelot of Laik (1870) 1031 Deuoydit was his spritis and his gost.
1596 E. Spenser Hymne in Honour of Beautie in Fowre Hymnes 14 Whose faire immortall beame, Hath darted fyre into my feeble ghost.
1674 N. Fairfax Treat. Bulk & Selvedge 12 It will be a good step towards the knowledg of what the world ought to be to us, who are body and ghost together.
1850 Ld. Tennyson In Memoriam xci. 136 Descend, and touch..That in this blindness of the frame My Ghost may feel that thine is near. View more context for this quotation
1900 Amer. Anthropologist 2 752 Mr James accepted the invitation of the Indians to indulge in a sweat-bath (which they believe to be efficacious in purifying both body and ghost).
2017 Business Insider (Nexis) 30 Mar. There are many philosophical moments, particularly about the meaning of a person's ‘ghost’ or soul.
†3. A person; an individual. Cf. soul n. 9a, spirit n. 4b. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > [noun]
hadc900
lifesmaneOE
maneOE
world-maneOE
ghostOE
wyeOE
lifeOE
son of manOE
wightc1175
soulc1180
earthmanc1225
foodc1225
person?c1225
creaturec1300
bodyc1325
beera1382
poppetc1390
flippera1400
wat1399
corsec1400
mortal?a1425
deadly?c1450
hec1450
personagec1485
wretcha1500
human1509
mundane1509
member1525
worma1556
homo1561
piece of flesh1567
sconce1567
squirrel?1567
fellow creature1572
Adamite1581
bloat herringa1586
earthling1593
mother's child1594
stuff1598
a piece of flesh1600
wagtail1607
bosom1608
fragment1609
boots1623
tick1631
worthy1649
earthlies1651
snap1653
pippin1665
being1666
personal1678
personality1678
sooterkin1680
party1686
worldling1687
human being1694
water-wagtail1694
noddle1705
human subject1712
piece of work1713
somebody1724
terrestrial1726
anybody1733
individual1742
character1773
cuss1775
jig1781
thingy1787
bod1788
curse1790
his nabs1790
article1796
Earthite1814
critter1815
potato1815
personeityc1816
nibs1821
somebody1826
tellurian1828
case1832
tangata1840
prawn1845
nigger1848
nut1856
Snooks1860
mug1865
outfit1867
to deliver the goods1870
hairpin1879
baby1880
possum1894
hot tamale1895
babe1900
jobbie1902
virile1903
cup of tea1908
skin1914
pisser1918
number1919
job1927
apple1928
mush1936
face1944
jong1956
naked ape1965
oke1970
punter1975
OE Riddle 3 30 Þær bið ceole wen sliþre sæcce, gif hine sæ byreð on þa grimman tid, gæsta fulne.
c1225 (?c1200) St. Katherine (Royal) (1981) l. 1024 Porfirie..com biuoren þe keiser & keneliche cleopede ‘..ich am her þu hatele gast mid alle mine hirdmen.’
a1350 ( in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 131 Þe kyng..brohte from alemayne mony sori gost to store Wyndesore.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1876) VI. 253 Aigolandus was a lewed goost, and lewedliche i-meved as þe devel hym tauȝte.
c1475 (c1399) Mum & Sothsegger (Cambr. Ll.4.14) (1936) i. l. 25 Graceles gostis, gylours of hem-self..sawe no manere siȝth saff solas and ese.
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene ii. viii. sig. T6v No knight so rude, I weene, As to doen outrage to a sleeping ghost.
4.
a. Theology. The divine nature or essential power of God, regarded as a creative, animating, or inspiring influence. In later use: spec. the Third Person (person n. 6a) of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. Now rare except in Holy Ghost n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > Christian God > the Trinity > the Holy Spirit > [noun]
Holy GhosteOE
ghostOE
Holy Spiritc1350
spiritc1384
Spirit of Truth (formerly also Verity, Soothness)c1384
baptism in the Spirit1534
dove1707
OE West Saxon Gospels: John (Corpus Cambr.) xiv. 26 Se haliga frofre gast þe fæder sent on minum naman [L. paracletus autem Spiritus Sanctus quem mittet Pater in nomine meo] eow lærð ealle þing.
OE Byrhtferð Enchiridion (Ashm.) (1995) ii. i. 72 On þam dæge [sc. Sunday] Godes gast com to mancynne.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 3000 & godess gast iss kariteþ & soþfasst lufe nemmnedd.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 53 Þe uerste libbeþ be þe ulesse..Þe zixte be þe goste and be þe loue of god.
a1450 York Plays (1885) 172 (MED) He schall giffe baptyme more entire in fire and gaste.
a1557 J. Cheke tr. Gospel St. Mark i, in tr. Gospel St. Matthew (1843) 105 He saw ye heavens departed, and ye ghoost to come down lijk a doov on him.
1647 H. More Philos. Poems i. ii. xci God's Spirit is no private empty shade But that great Ghost that fills both earth and sky.
1758 Blessed is He that is not offended in Christ 11 I was baptized with the Ghost that is Holy, which is the Ghost of God.
1871 G. MacDonald Sonnets conc. Jesus iv 'Tis man himself, the temple of thy Ghost.
1908 R. W. Gilbert Golden Rod & Lilies 105 When the folk went into the wilderness Driven by the ghost of God, I guess, They heard a voice and they saw a face.
2005 Independent (Nexis) 14 Apr. 41 To the blasphemously disposed, the trio of Father, Son and Ghost sounded like one of those species-crossing families in the movies, Tarzan, Jane and Cheetah, say.
†b. A quality, virtue, or insight; esp. one regarded as divine in origin. Also: a quality or insight which is regarded as coming from the Devil. Frequently with of. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) iii. xiii. 200 Se Godes wer þurh witedomes gast [L. per prophetiae spiritum] þone storm toweardne foreseah.
c1175 ( Ælfric's Homily on Nativity of Christ (Bodl. 343) in A. O. Belfour 12th Cent. Homilies in MS Bodl. 343 (1909) 78 Nu weron summe dwolmen mid deofles gaste ifulled þe nolden ilyfæn [etc.].
c1225 (?c1200) St. Katherine (Bodl.) (1981) l. 484 Ah is an heouenlich gast in hire swa aȝein us þet we ne cunnen..warpen na word aȝein.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 119 Þe gost of wysdome and of onderstondinge, þe gost of strengþe and of uirtue, þe gost of wytte and of pite, þe gost of godes drede..byeþ þe graces huer-of he wes al uol.
a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1882) v. l. 1521 Thow seyst nat soth quod he þou sorceresse, with al þi fals gost of prophesie.
c1450 (a1425) Metrical Paraphr. Old Test. (Selden) l. 4721 (MED) The gast of god in hym [sc. Samuel] dyscend, wher by he cowth tell talys trew.
†II. Breath, and related senses.
5. Chiefly in translations of Latin spiritus.
a. The breath of God or a god. Occasionally also more generally: breath. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > respiratory organs > breathing > [noun] > breath
ghosteOE
bleadc890
ethemeOE
windOE
fnastc1000
breathOE
blas?c1225
blasta1325
andec1330
respiration?a1425
breast1535
air1567
respirea1657
puff1827
eOE (Mercian) Vespasian Psalter (1965) cxviii.131 Os meum aperui et adtraxi spiritum : muð minne ic ontynde & togeteh gast.
OE Cynewulf Crist II 665 Sumum wordlaþe wise sendeð on his modes gemynd þurh his muþes gæst, æðele ondgiet.
OE Ælfric Homily (Vitell. C.v) in J. C. Pope Homilies of Ælfric (1967) I. 201 Heofonas synd gefæstnode þurh þæt halige Godes word, & þurh his muðes gast heora miht is getrymmed.
a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) l. 4610 Þe boke says, alswa, þat he, Thurgh þe gast of Goddes mouthe slayn sal be.
b. A blast of strong wind, a gust; the blowing of a storm. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > wind > [noun] > blast or gust of
ghosteOE
blasta1000
blas?c1225
ragec1405
blorec1440
flaw1513
thud1513
flaga1522
fuddera1522
flake1555
flan1572
whid?1590
flirta1592
gust1594
berry1598
wind-catch1610
snuff1613
stress1625
flash1653
blow1655
fresh1662
scud1694
flurry1698
gush1704
flam1711
waff1727
flawer1737
Roger's Blasta1825
flaff1827
slat1840
scart1861
rodges-blast1879
huffle1889
slap1890
slammer1891
Sir Roger1893
eOE (Mercian) Vespasian Psalter (1965) x. 7 Pluet super peccatores laqueos ignis et sulphur et spiritus procellarum pars calicis eorum : rineð ofer ða synfullan giren fyres & swefelrec & gast ysta dael calices heara.
OE Paris Psalter (1932) cxlvii. 7 He his word sendeð þuruh windes gast; blaweð beorhtlice.
c1350 Psalter (BL Add. 17376) in K. D. Bülbring Earliest Compl. Eng. Prose Psalter (1891) x. 7 (MED) Þe gost of tempestes ys partener of her wyckednesse.
a1500 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) x. §7. 41 He sall rayn on synful..gast of stormes.
III. A supernatural being, and extended uses.
6.
a. An incorporeal, supernatural, rational being, of a type usually regarded as imperceptible to humans but capable of becoming visible at will; a spirit. Cf. spirit n. 10a. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > [noun]
ghostOE
spiritc1350
minda1398
sprite?1440
intelligencea1456
esperite1477
intelligency1582
genio1590
geniusa1592
ethereal1610
spirituality1628
supernatural1660
jynx1662
duende1691
atua1769
nat1819
demon1822
Wandjina1938
OE Ælfric Lives of Saints (Julius) (1881) I. 14 Sume sindon ungesewenlice gastas butan lichoman swa swa synd ænglas on heofonum.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 2750 Þe clerkes sede..Þat þer beþ in þe eyr an hey, ver fram þe grounde, As a maner gostes..Þat men clupeþ eluene.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 17593 (MED) He þat alle gastes, god and ill, Has for to weld all at his will!
1609 W. Shakespeare Sonnets lxxxvi. sig. F2v That affable familiar ghost Which nightly gulls him with intelligence. View more context for this quotation
1704 E. Pelling Disc. conc. Existence of God II. iv. 76 They need not be concerned for such Trifles as their Souls, nor stand in fear of Angels, or Devils, or any other Ghost, or Power Invisible.
1892 R. G. Ingersoll Ghosts 11 For thousands of years it was believed that ghosts, good and bad, benevolent and malignant, weak and powerful, in some mysterious way, produced all phenomena.
1991 M. Dorris & L. Erdrich Crown of Columbus ii. 29 He believed in ghosts good and bad, yet could tell you exactly how electricity was generated and fed into a light bulb.
b. A good spirit; an angel.rare between the 16th and 18th centuries.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > angel > [noun]
ghosteOE
angelOE
Son of Goda1382
saint1382
angel (also spirit) of lightc1384
watcher1535
watchman1552
eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) iii. xiv. 214 Þa heo þa heora word..geendedon, & swelce eft mid þæm engelicum gastum to heofonum hwurfen.
c1175 ( Homily (Bodl. 343) in S. Irvine Old Eng. Homilies (1993) 142 Englæs beoð þeiniendlice gastes.
c1225 (?c1200) Sawles Warde (Bodl.) (1938) 28 Ich biseh to þe engles..iblescede gastes þe beoð a biuore godd.
?c1500 Mary Magdalene (Digby) l. 601 I am þe gost of goodnesse þat so wold ȝe gydde.
1635 J. Jones Adrasta iv. i. 74 Ghost! Angel! Goddesse! Nimph! Speake, daine a word to tell me what thou art, That thus appearst in such a glorious shape To intercept my death?
1804 Prospect (N.Y.) 14 Apr. 151 Some say he was..half God and half man, or the offspring of an heavenly ghost and an earthly virgin.
1915 L. Phifer Dramas of Kansas 38 They puffed their pipes In honour of Waconda, Heaven's Ghost.
2008 J. Van Praagh Ghosts among Us i. 10 I saw several illuminated spirits dressed in white robes walk through the wall of the tabernacle. I knew they were special ghosts from heaven because I could feel a sense of adoration and reverence.
c. An evil spirit; a demon. Also in the loath (also foul, wicked) ghost: the Devil. rare after 17th cent.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > evil spirit or demon > [noun]
evil angel, spiritc950
ghosteOE
uncleanOE
demonOE
devilOE
devilshineOE
groa1225
debleriea1325
devilnessa1400
devilryc1400
sprat?a1475
nicker1481
fiend of hell1509
imp1526
virtue1584
elf1587
succubus1601
blue devilc1616
black man1656
woolsaw1757
buggane1775
bhut1785
demonic1785
pishachi1807
devil-devil1831
skookum1838
taipo1848
lightning bird1870
demonry1883
pisaca1885
mafufunyanas1963
mare1981
the world > the supernatural > deity > a devil > [noun]
hell-devileOE
shuckc888
ghosteOE
devilOE
warlockOE
angelOE
unwighta1200
beastc1225
ragmanc1400
Satanasc1426
diabolic1502
ruffy1502
Satan?1545
Avernal?1548
fallen angel?1587
rebel angel1623
deedle1653
blackamoor1663
the world > the supernatural > deity > a devil > the Devil or Satan > [noun]
devileOE
Beelzebubc950
the foul ghosteOE
SatanOE
warlockOE
SatanasOE
worsea1200
unwinea1225
wondc1250
quedea1275
pucka1300
serpenta1300
dragon1340
shrew1362
Apollyon1382
the god of this worldc1384
Mahoundc1400
leviathan1412
worsta1425
old enemyc1449
Ruffin1567
dismal1570
Plotcocka1578
the Wicked One1582
goodman1603
Mahu1603
foul thief1609
somebody1609
legiona1616
Lord of Flies1622
walliman1629
shaitan1638
Old Nicka1643
Nick1647
unsel?1675
old gentleman1681
old boy1692
the gentleman in black1693
deuce1694
Black Spy1699
the vicious one1713
worricow1719
Old Roger1725
Lord of the Flies1727
Simmie1728
Old Scratch1734
Old Harry1777
Old Poker1784
Auld Hornie1786
old (auld), ill thief1789
old one1790
little-good1821
Tom Walker1833
bogy1840
diabolarch1845
Old Ned1859
iniquity1899
eOE Metrical Dialogue of Solomon & Saturn (Corpus Cambr. 422) i. 86 Se ðe wile geornlice ðone Godes cwide singan.., he mæg ðone laðan gæst, feohtende feond, fleonde gebrengan.
OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xii. 43 Þonne se unclæna gast utfærþ fram menn, he gæð geond drige stowa secende reste.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 8064 Herode king maȝȝ swiþe wel. Þe laþe gast bitacnenn.
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 87 Swiche hertes fondeð þe fule gost deies and nihtes.
c1300 Ministry & Passion of Christ (Laud) (1873) l. 232 Þou luþere gost and doumb..Ich hote þe þat þov wende hasteliche fram þe childe.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 170 How iesus quen he lang had fast Was fondid wit þe wik gast.
a1535 T. More Dialoge of Comfort (1553) ii. ix. sig. G.v Oure wrestling is..agaynst the spyrituall wycked ghostes of the ayre.
1661 W. Houghton Disc. conc. Ananias & Saphira 4 They are filled with the wicked ghost, or spirit full of Satan.
1777 H. H. Brackenridge Death Gen. Montgomery v. v. 52 Pointing to him, the foul and ugly Ghosts Of Hell, shall say, ‘That was an Englishman’.
1890 Morning Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) 4 Dec. 9/2 I heard a wild scream, and started down the street with all the ghosts of hell at my back.
2020 AFP Internat. Text Wire 7 May My mom believed I was possessed by ghosts and that if I didn't have an exorcism then the evil spirits would stay with me.
7. The soul of a deceased person or animal, conceived of as continuing to exist in an afterlife, apart from the physical world. In later use: esp. the soul of a dead person, considered as an object of homage or reverence or as demanding to be propitiated; = manes n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > [noun] > spirit of deceased person
ghosteOE
soulOE
spiritc1384
lemurc1580
shade1616
angel1787
shen1847
dybbuk1877
eOE (Northumbrian) Bede's Death Song (St. Gallen) 4 To ymbhycggannae..huaet his gastae godaes aeththa yflaes aefter deothdaege doemid uueorthae.
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 169 Witeð ȝie awariede gostes in to eche fur.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 18603 His bodi here, his gast was þar, His goddhede wanted noþer-quar.
1606 G. W. tr. Justinus Hist. 126 He did sacrifice to his Wiues Ghost.
1704 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion III. xi. 147 To take full Vengeance for the loss of Rainsborough, to whose Ghost he design'd an ample sacrifice.
1880 Spectator 10 Apr. 468/2 When the ghost has been developed into a being of that higher grade [i.e. a deity], the food offered does not of necessity involve the shedding of blood of animals or men, but may consist of corn, fruits, or cakes.
1937 Daily Mail 11 Jan. 9/2 Two fir trees under a thatched roof..guard a drinking trough which serves as a memorial to the ghost of a dog. It is inscribed ‘in memory of Jake. 1935’.
2009 Anthropol. Q. 82 687 When burning spirit money, silver spirit money is for ghosts, whereas gold spirit money for gods.
8.
a. The soul or spirit of a dead person or animal, conceived of as appearing in visible form or otherwise manifesting in the physical world, typically as a shadowy, nebulous image, a presence capable of moving objects, an eerie disembodied voice, etc.; an apparition, a spectre, a phantom, often haunting a specific location. Also: a spectral or phantasmal object; the ghostly manifestation of an object.Now the usual sense.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [noun]
soulOE
huea1000
ghostOE
fantasyc1325
spiritc1350
phantomc1384
phantasmc1430
haunterc1440
shadowa1464
appearance1488
wraith1513
hag1538
spoorn1584
vizarda1591
life-in-death1593
phantasma1598
umbra1601
larve1603
spectre1605
spectrum1611
apparitiona1616
shadea1616
shapea1616
showa1616
idolum1619
larva1651
white hat?1693
zumbi1704
jumbie1764
duppy1774
waff1777
zombie1788
Wild Huntsman1796
spook1801
ghostie1810
hantua1811
preta1811
bodach1814
revenant1823
death-fetch1826
sowlth1829
haunt1843
night-bat1847
spectrality1850
thivish1852
beastie1867
ghost soul1869
barrow-wight1891
resurrect1892
waft1897
churel1901
comeback1908
OE Old Eng. Martyrol. (Julius) 5 Jan. (2013) 42 Hire ætywde on nihtlicre gesyhðe hire swyster gast.
c1300 St. Brendan (Laud) l. 525 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 234 Heo i-seiȝe on-ouewarde..A wrechche gost, naked and bar.
c1430 (c1386) G. Chaucer Legend Good Women (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1879) l. 1295 This nyght myn faderys gost Hath in myn slep so sore me tormentid.
1513 G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneid vi. xi. 35 Fadir, thi drery gost Sa oft apperand, maid me seik this cost.
a1627 T. Middleton & W. Rowley Old Law (1656) iv. 50 I'le bury some money before I die that my ghost may hant thee afterward.
1794 A. Radcliffe Myst. of Udolpho II. ix. 371 Now you would persuade me, you have seen a ghost!
1890 Rocky Mountain News (Denver) 21 Sept. 21/2 Each hour, at one or the other of certain corners, the lonely copper and the ghost of the dog stop, while the former gazes away into the darkness as if expecting to meet someone.
1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 522 In front of us a spear's ghost used to fly across the path about that time in the afternoon.
1946 ‘P. Wentworth’ Pilgrim's Rest (1985) xvii. 188 He was in the position of a man who does not believe in ghosts, but does not rest easy in a haunted house.
2006 Metro 12 June (London ed.) 19/3 The foppish ghost of the legendary poet, Hellenophile and all-round hedonist, George Gordon Byron, is said to haunt the halls of Newstead Abbey in Nottingham.
b. A thing that merely resembles some other thing in form or appearance, esp. a mirage, reflection, hallucination, etc. Also as a modifier. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > thing seen > optical illusion > [noun] > an optical illusion > vision or apparition
visionc1290
fantasyc1325
imagec1350
figurec1384
beholdingc1440
semblance1489
idol1563
ghost1593
fancy1609
species1639
spectrala1656
spectre1801
eidolon1828
1593 W. Shakespeare Venus & Adonis sig. Fiijv Hatefull diuorce of loue, (thus chides she death) Grim-grinning ghost, earths-worme. View more context for this quotation
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan iii. xxxiv. 208 A Ghost, or other Idol or Phantasme of the Imagination.
1727 D. Defoe Ess. Hist. Apparitions v. 50 An Apparition is vulgarly call'd by us a Ghost.
1897 Dundee Courier & Argus 22 Dec. 4/4 A person..may consciously know beforehand what his life is going to be, and a thought or wish in connection with that knowledge may be strong enough to raise a brain image of the past that sufficiently truly pictures the substance of this thought. This is one kind of true ghost or vision.
1963 S. O'Faoláin Vive Moi! (1964) xiii. 310 We saw that first mesa rising out of the plain, with another ghost or mirage mesa hovering over it in the great heat of the dry aromatic air.
†9. A corpse. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > dead body > [noun]
lichc893
dust?a1000
holdc1000
bonesOE
stiff onea1200
bodyc1225
carrion?c1225
licham?c1225
worms' food or ware?c1225
corsec1250
ashc1275
corpsec1315
carcass1340
murraina1382
relicsa1398
ghostc1400
wormes warec1400
corpusc1440
scadc1440
reliefc1449
martc1480
cadaverc1500
mortc1500
tramort?a1513
hearse1530
bulk1575
offal1581
trunk1594
cadaverie1600
relicts1607
remains1610
mummya1616
relic1636
cold meat1788
mortality1827
death bone1834
deader1853
stiff1859
c1400 (?c1280) Old Test. Hist. in F. J. Furnivall Adam Davy's 5 Dreams (1878) 90 Bot we ne fynde nouȝth þai mowe arere þe ded to lyue. Bot in-to cursed gostes fendes willeþ go.
1567 G. Fenton tr. M. Bandello Certaine Tragicall Disc. ix. sig. Bbi Kissyng every parte of hys senceles ghoste.
1594 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 iii. ii. 161 Oft haue I seene a timely parted ghost, Of ashie semblance, pale and bloodlesse.
IV. A person likened to a ghost, and related senses.
10. A very pale or emaciated person; a person who is not at full strength. Cf. the ghost of a person's (or thing's) former self at Phrases 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > bodily shape or physique > slim shape or physique > [noun] > thin shape > person having
staffc1405
notomy1487
rakea1529
crag1542
scrag1542
sneakbill1546
starveling1546
slim1548
ghost1590
bald-rib1598
bare-bone1598
bow-case1599
atomy1600
sneaksbill1602
thin-gut1602
anatomya1616
sharg1623
skeleton1630
raw-bone1635
living skeleton1650
strammel1706
scarecrow1711
rickle of bones1729
shargar1754
squeeze-crab1785
rack of bones1804
thread-paper1824
bag of bones1838
dry-bones1845
skinnymalink1870
hairpin1879
slim jim1889
skinny1907
underweight1910
asthenic1925
ectomorph1940
skinny-malinky1957
matchstick1959
1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons i. *** iv Great numbers of miserable and pitiful ghosts, or rather shadowes of men.
1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 218 By their unmerciful bleeding him; insomuch that he seemed to have little more left than would suffice to make him a walking Ghost.
1714 T. Lucas Mem. Most Famous Gamesters & Sharpers 15 He was a meer Anatomy or perfect Ghost, with so little Breath.
1880 Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Daily Sentinel 21 Sept. 1/3 She was..talking to a child of about her own years—a pale, thin ghost of a thing, whose uncared-for locks, ragged frock, and broken, trodden-down shoes formed a striking contrast to her own trim gracefulness.
1981 J. Updike Rabbit is Rich (1982) iv. 335 When Pru returns to him asking to go she is dead pale, a ghost with the lipstick on her face like movie blood.
2016 Telegraph (India) (Nexis) 4 Dec. The ancient cities of Yemen become ruins filled with starving ghosts.
11.
a. Originally: a deceased person whose name is registered to vote for the purpose of electoral fraud. Now more generally: a deceased or fictitious person registered in a system for the purpose of committing tax, welfare, or electoral fraud; (also) a company registered purely to facilitate tax avoidance, fraud, etc. Frequently as a modifier; cf. Compounds 1b.Recorded earliest in ghost voter.
ΚΠ
1855 Freeman's Jrnl. (Dublin) 11 Oct. 2/1 Even supposing the absence of ‘ghost’ voters and other frauds.
1884 Magnolia (Mississippi) Gaz. 15 May 3/1 The late Mr. A. A. Wilkins, who at one time was a citizen of this county, and who died in New Orleans about two years ago, is reported by the Picayune as having voted in New Orleans, at the recent election. According the account given several other ghosts voted also.
1955 B. Schulberg Waterfront iv. 48 The short-gang gimmick (hire sixteen men for the work of twenty-two and pad the payroll with ghosts).
1993 R. Shell iCED 88 I could give my rent book to one of them and get the Welfare ghosts to send my rent money to them so they could pay it for me like Lorraine used to do.
2004 Business Credit Feb. 26/1 These are often the most sophisticated fraud schemes. The shell company is ‘a ghost,’ Bares says. ‘It's a web site and a phone line. They don't exist as real companies.’
2016 Daily Independent (Nigeria) (Nexis) 6 Oct. Did ghosts register in the state? After all, the millions of ghost workers on federal and state payrolls collect billions of Naira monthly.
b. A person named on a register or record who proves difficult or impossible to trace; cf. Compounds 1d.Recorded earliest in ghost student.
ΚΠ
1925 Washington Post 22 Mar. (Features section) 3/2 The question of how to deal with ‘ghost students’, who never even show their faces at schools, and a number of other riddles in connection with the new immigration law remain to be cleared up.
1959 Harper's Mag. Feb. 46/1 If even Harvard has ‘ghosts’ (admitted applicants who do not show up on registration day), the smaller colleges must expect to be roundly haunted, and they are.
2021 Doctors (transcript of TV programme) (Nexis) 10 Feb. These ghosts are people still on a GP surgery's books despite them no longer existing as patients of the practice.
c. A person who evades official registration for tax.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > rule of law > lawlessness > specific offences > [noun] > tax evasion > one guilty of
tax-evader1927
ghost1982
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > impost, due, or tax > tax > payment of taxes > [noun] > tax evasion > tax-evader
tax-evader1927
skimmer1970
ghost1982
1982 Accountant 25 Mar. 9 Last week came news of tax ghosts in the Revenue's report. These are people, wealthy people, who somehow have managed not to join the club. Until picked up by one of the Revenue's special offices there is no file on them at a tax office.
1983 Daily Tel. 9 May 1/4 The ‘ghosts’..do not exist on taxmen's books.
1990 Independent 25 Nov. 17 The Revenue computer can instantly confirm whether any named individual has a tax record. So the first break in a ‘ghost’ case is finding someone engaged in trade who has no record.
2017 Proc. Ann. Conf. Taxation (National Tax Assoc.) 110 2 Detroit's income tax division sent mailings in April through June 2016 to 7,142 suspected ‘ghosts’.
12. A person who does work on behalf of another person who is publicly credited; esp. a ghostwriter. Cf. ghostwriter n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > writer or author > [noun] > hack
hack writer1711
garreteer1720
hack authora1734
hack1798
truckster1843
hodman1849
ghost1881
devil1888
deviller1893
ghostwriter1908
1881 Vanity Fair 24 Sept. 180/1 They have never been introduced to a ‘ghost’—that is to say, a person employed by incompetent artists secretly to do up their work and make it artistic.
1942 Fortune Nov. 154/2 In the opinion of some, his most successful compositions were written by the ghost who was least successful in mimicking his rather cumbersome style.
1995 Times Lit. Suppl. 29 Dec. 28/1 These buildings..were designed rapidly, often by anonymous young ‘ghosts’ in the offices of knighted architects.
2007 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 25 Oct. A good ghost, for instance, supplies his or her own memories, because the famous person may have been too busy being successful to recall anything.
†13. Military. An imaginary enemy used in training manoeuvres. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
1908 Daily Tel. 18 Aug. 6/3 Besides this living entity, or solid embodiment of cavalry and guns, there is a skeleton army under Major-General E. C. Bethune, of four cavalry brigades (nominal).., which are likewise ‘ghosts’.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 19 Aug. 8/1 The day's work..will culminate in a running battle, in which the ‘ghosts’ will once more be the enemy.
V. Something likened to a ghost, esp. in having a faint or blurred appearance.
14. A faint appearance or insubstantial semblance; a slight trace or vestige of a thing. Cf. shadow n. 6h.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > indication > marking > a mark > trace or vestige > [noun]
signa1382
stepa1382
ficchingc1384
marka1400
tracesc1400
scentc1422
footstep?a1425
tidinga1440
relicc1475
smell?a1505
stead1513
vestigy1545
print1548
token1555
remnant1560
show1561
mention1564
signification1576
footing?1580
tract1583
remainder1585
vestige1602
wrack1602
engravement1604
footstepping1610
resent1610
ghost1613
impression1613
remark1624
footprint1625
studdle1635
vestigium1644
relict1646
perception1650
vestigiary1651
track1657
symptom1722
signacle1768
ray1773
vestigia1789
footmark1800
souvenir1844
latent1920
the world > existence and causation > existence > substantiality or concreteness > unsubstantiality or abstractness > [noun] > unsubstantiality or lack of substance > something lacking substance > mere appearance or image of something
shadow?c1225
shade1297
phantomc1384
moonshine1468
fume1531
show1547
eggs in moonshine?1558
smoke1559
sign1597
ghost1613
umbra1635
parhelion1636
bogle1793
simulacrum1805
phantasmagoria1821
spectre1849
the world > relative properties > quantity > smallness of quantity, amount, or degree > [noun] > a small quantity or amount > a slight touch or trace
specec1330
taste1390
lisounc1400
savourc1400
smatcha1500
smell?a1505
spice1531
smack1539
shadow1586
surmise1586
relish1590
tang1593
touch1597
stain1609
tincture1612
dasha1616
soula1616
twanga1640
whiff1644
haut-goût1650
casta1661
stricturea1672
tinge1736
tinct1752
vestige1756
smattering1764
soupçon1766
smutch1776
shade1791
suspicion1809
lineament1811
trait1815
tint1817
trace1827
skiff1839
spicing1844
smudgea1871
ghost1887
1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage i. vii. 33 That Berosus, which we now have, is not so much as the ghost, or carkasse..of that famous Chaldean Author.
1731 A. Hill Advice to Poets Ep. 13 Things, without Wit, or Meaning, and which are not so much, as the Ghosts of good Poetry.
1818 T. Moore Fudge Family in Paris iii. 43 There, Dick, what a breakfast!—oh, not like your ghost Of a breakfast in England.
1887 H. R. Haggard Jess viii. 70 Her breath rested for a second on his cheek like the ghost of a kiss.
1930 S. Sassoon Mem. Infantry Officer ii. 25 He hadn't a ghost of an idea whether we could get through the Boche wire.
2012 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 20 Dec. 82/2 The ghost of a smile may be glimpsed on his face.
15. figurative. A memory, past event, etc., that causes distraction, trouble, or unease; the distraction, trouble, or unease caused by such a memory, past event, etc. Cf. to lay a ghost to rest at Phrases 1d(b).
ΚΠ
1644 J. Milton Areopagitica 36 I fear yet this iron yoke of outward conformity hath left a slavish print upon our necks; the ghost of a linnen decency yet haunts us.
1764 S. Foote Patron iii. 71 If I go to the bar, the ghost of this curs'd comedy will follow, and hunt me in Westminster-hall.
1830 Reg. Deb. Congr. 6 206/1 The ‘coalition’, the ghost of which he supposed had haunted the gentleman's..imagination.
1988 F. Kermode in D. Walder Lit. in Mod. World (1990) 20 There was a rival kind of Modernism that professed a desire to destroy the monuments, to destroy the past. But the ghost of canonicity haunts even these iconoclasts.
2008 Caribbean Rev. Bks. Feb. 9/2 The ghost of memory always hovers, betraying people too young for nostalgia and rewiring the future so that it looks an awful lot like the past.
†16. Scottish. A piece of dead coal that is white instead of glowing or burning (cf. dead coal). Also: the white cinders left after coal has burnt. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > burning > products of burning > [noun] > cinder
coaleOE
cinder1530
ghost1807
ghost-coal1824
1807 J. Headrick in Agric. Arran 217 The dauch always left a large guest; whereas the coal burnt into a fine white ash.
1824 S. E. Ferrier Inheritance I. xvii. 188 Mr R. sat by the side of the expiring fire, seemingly contemplating the gaists and cinders which lay scattered over the hearth.
1912 Scotsman 19 Jan. ‘G'wa', stapp some gase atween yer taes’, said an old pit-woman to a lad who complained that the skin between his toes had got broken through working among water, ‘and that'll soon heal them’.
17.
a. Optics. A spot, shape, or duplicate image appearing at the focal plane of an optical device, produced by spurious reflections resulting from defects in the instrument's optics, or from the imaging of photons from a reflective surface or bright light source in the object field. Cf. flare n.1 3.Ghosts appear as an out-of-focus blur, a sharp circle or polygon with the shape of one of the apertures inside the device, or a false secondary image alongside the desired image. They can occur in any optical or imaging device that uses electromagnetic waves, including telescopes, cameras, mirrors, microscopes, binoculars, and gunsights.See also ghost image n. at Compounds 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > instrument for distant vision > [noun] > telescope > images seen through telescope
ghost1851
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > photography > a photograph > qualities and effects > [noun] > other qualities and effects
ghost1851
solarization1853
flare1867
bronzing1868
ghost image1872
shine1880
orthochromatism1889
false image1892
flare-spot1893
halo1941
acutance1952
1851 Official Descriptive & Illustr. Catal. Great Exhib. II. 424/1 No light is lost, as in the usual construction, by inner reflections, and there is no formation of the false image or ‘ghost’ of planets and the brighter stars.
1864 J. Towler Silver Sunbeam (1870) xlviii. 451 You will perceive one, two, three, etc., illuminated circles move across the field of vision over the picture—these are ghosts.
1976 Microscopy 33 6 A prism or first-surface mirror eliminates mirror ghosts.
1999 T. J. Gaetz in XRCF Phase 1 Testing: Anal. Results (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) (2004) xx. 2 in cxc.cfa.harvard.edu (e-book, accessed 30 Mar. 2021) The HRMA [sc. high resolution mirror assembly] baffles are designed to reject non-reflected ghost rays, and to prevent single reflection ghosts from hitting within the central 14′ of the focal plane.
2019 J. Sasián Introd. Lens Design xiv. 164 A ghost can be an image of the object, an image of the aperture stop, i.e. a pupil, or an image of the light sensor.
b. In spectroscopy: a spurious spectral line or band resulting from a periodic error in the spacing of the rulings of a diffraction grating, or extraneous reflections within a spectrometer.
ΚΠ
1879 C. S. Peirce in Amer. Jrnl. Math. 2 330 (title) On the ghosts in Rutherfurd's diffraction-spectra.
1882 Nature 23 Nov. 95/1 Prof. Rowland's plates..were free from ‘ghosts’ caused by periodicity in the ruling.
1973 Canad. Jrnl. Chem. 51 1525/2 This reduced considerably the stray light which caused so much noise with the original cell, and was also responsible, incidentally, for the two ‘ghost’ bands erroneously assigned to ozone.
2007 F. G. Smith et al. Optics & Photonics (ed. 2) xi. 269 The spectrum produced has numerous ghosts spaced at multiples of λ/ md and of various intensities.
c. Cinematography. Blurring or partial duplication of a projected image, esp. vertical streaking of bright parts, caused by incorrect positioning or timing of the shutter. Also: an instance of this; such a blur or fault in the projected image. More fully shutter ghost, travel ghost.
ΚΠ
1910 F. H. Richardson Motion Picture Handbk. 176 In order that the shutter cut as small a percentage of the light as is practical without developing a ‘travel ghost’ (white streaks shooting up or down from white objects in the picture or from letters in a title), the shutter is made narrow.
1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 375/2 Ghost, vertical streaks on high-lights in a projected picture, arising from incorrect phasing of the rotary shutter with respect to the moving film.
1960 U.S. Camera Nov. 116/2 When, as happens on rare occasions, this timing gets off, or out of exact synchrony, what will be the visible result on the film image? It will be what is known among cine technicians as a ‘shutter ghost’, or ‘ghost image’.
1989 Encycl. Exhib. (U.S. National Assoc. Theatre Owners) 182/1 Shutter ghost (travel ghost) is the streak or blur that occurs to an image resulting from any vertical motion of film in the gate as the projector shutter opens.
1995 SMPTE Jrnl. Sept. 654/3 Ghosts below the white square indicate the shutter is opening too soon; ghosts above the white square indicate the shutter is closing too late.
d. Television. A displaced duplicate image on a television screen produced by an additional copy of an analogue signal, resulting from reflection or leakage during transmission.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > broadcasting > television > visual element > [noun] > television picture or image > defects in
multiple image1863
ghost1927
flicker1933
ion spot1936
halation1937
blooming1940
shading1940
misregistration1942
snow1946
snowstorm1948
ringing1949
streaking1956
strobing1961
flickering1968
1927 Bell Syst. Techn. Jrnl. 6 646 When marked fading occurred, the normally clear [television] reproduction was accompanied by ‘ghosts’ or additional images which faded in and out.
1929 H. H. Sheldon & E. N. Grisewood Television xiii. 143 The ‘ghosts’ represented energy which had traveled from the transmitter upward to the Heaviside..whence it was reflected to the receiver.
1967 Guardian 24 June 1/3 After a rain storm of static and a flutter of television ‘ghosts’ we were able to recognise LBJ.
1998 Australian (Nexis) 7 Apr. 50 They [sc. digital transmissions] maintain an image as sharp as the one originally passed to the transmitter, and they don't suffer from ghosts.
e. A spurious signal on a radar screen that does not correspond to an object at the indicated location.Recorded earliest as a modifier, in ghost signal.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > radio equipment > [noun] > radar apparatus > marks or signals on radar screen
range mark1942
ghost1943
pip1944
range marker1944
blip1945
clutter1945
sea return1945
sea clutter1946
angel1947
1943 Fund. Radar (Naval Air Techn. Training Center, Corpus Christi, Texas) App. A-7/1 Ghost signals, signals appearing on the screen of the RADAR indicator, the cause of which cannot be readily determined.
1945 Flying Oct. 82/3 Another distortion is called a ‘ghost’ or ‘phantom echo’. Its images do not follow the characteristics of normal echoes and for which definite targets cannot be found.
1969 D. K. Barton & H. R. Ward Handbk. Radar Measurem. i. 12 Common examples are ambiguities in range and Doppler measurements..and the ghosts produced by scanning with two fan beams which are oriented at right angles to each other.
2002 E. G. Hoare et al. in Foresight Vehicle Technol. 17/2 Algorithmic procedures were established to allow such ghosts to be removed.
f. In other forms of technology (e.g. medical sonography, geophysical surveying, chromatography): an additional partial image or signal produced by multiple reflections, interference, or contamination; a spurious result produced as an artefact of the method used. Chiefly as a modifier.
ΚΠ
1949 Nature 31 Dec. 1109/1 The first defect appeared when basic solvents were used on Whatman No. 1 or No. 4 papers. ‘Ghost’ spots of the esters remained on the ‘starting line’, and more or less serious trails were left behind the moving spots.
1957 D. H. Howry in E. Kelly-Fry Ultrasound in Biol. & Med. 56 The additional artifact structures (ghost echoes) were caused by multiple reflections of the sound beam.
1990 W. C. Pritchett Acquiring Better Seismic Data viii. 122 When we shoot below the surface on land, we sometimes have a significant ghost problem from seismic waves from the shot traveling upward and being reflected back downward either at the base of weathering or from the surface.
2002 D. G. Penninck in T. G. Nyland & J. S. Mattoon Small Animal Diagnostic Ultrasound (ed. 2) ii. 23/1 Ghost artifact, also called double-image artifact and split-image artifact, is a common artifact in pelvic examinations in women.
18. Biology. The cell wall or membrane of a cell that has lost its cytoplasmic contents (more fully ghost cell). Also: a bacteriophage with a head end that has lost its contents.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > substance > cell > parts of cell > [noun] > wall or membranes
septum1720
cell wall1840
valve1852
periplast1853
stroma1872
ghost1879
endoplasmic reticulum1883
plasma membrane1893
plasmalemma1923
unit membrane1958
purple membrane1968
1879 Rep. 49th Meeting Brit. Assoc. Advancem. Sci. 417 The ghost cells recently described at the meeting of the British Medical Association in Cork, are also to be demonstrated by this method in blood a month sealed.
1890 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 57 499 The parenchymatous tissue of the endosperm portions..is completely disintegrated, the cell-walls either entirely disappearing or remaining in a much swollen and altered form as mere ‘ghosts’.
1902 Jrnl. Exper. Med. 6 267 Whether this increase of permeability persists when the corpuscles have been reduced to ghosts by the escape of hæmoglobin I am unable to say.
1951 Jrnl. Bacteriol. 61 753 The ghosts have a host range specificity similar to that of the virus from which they were derived. [Note] The word ‘ghost’ has been used because of its obvious relationship to the red cell ghost produced in a somewhat similar manner. It consists of the deflated head and the tail.
1973 New Phytologist 72 801 The protoplasmic contents are released in to the surrounding medium leaving the empty ghost cells.
2015 B. J. Bain Blood Cells (ed. 5) vii. 279 A single stained fetal cell is seen against a background of ghosts of maternal cells.
19. Metallurgy. An indistinct line, outline, or other marking visible on a steel surface due to segregation of certain constituents, esp. phosphorus. Often in plural or as a modifier (cf. ghost line n. at Compounds 3).
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1904 Engineer 2 Sept. 227/2 It was also large in pattern, frequently occurred in those long white lines, rich in sulphur and phosphorus, which are technically known as ‘Ghosts’.
1945 R. H. Greaves & H. Wrighton Pract. Microsc. Metallogr. x. 173 A ghost is due to local segregation of impurities during the solidification of the ingot.
2008 V. F. Buchwald Iron, Steel & Cast Iron before Bessemer xiii. 501/1 The ghost structure is emphasized here by bringing the object slightly out of microscopic focus.
†20. An impression of a signature made by folding over the paper on which it is written while the ink is still wet. Obsolete.
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society > communication > indication > that which identifies or distinguishes > personal identification > signature > [noun] > impression of signature
ghost1914
1914 F. M. White House of Mammon xii. 79 Mr. Sairson, will you do a ‘ghost’ for me to paste in my album? Your signature ought to make a very apparent and robust apparition... You take a piece of paper and fold it lengthwise, then write your signature along the crease, and whilst the ink is wet, press the two folds together. When this is opened again it leaves an impression which some call the skeleton, other the ghost, of the signature. Some of these are most weird.
1929 Sotheby's Catal. 4–7 Nov. 82 On the back of one ‘ghost’ there is a note in the Author's hand.
B. adj.
U.S. colloquial (originally and chiefly in African-American usage). to be (also get, go) ghost: to leave a place or situation, esp. suddenly or hurriedly; to absent oneself. Cf. ghost v. 6.Frequently in the present tense in I’m ghost, used to indicate that a person is leaving or is about to leave a place.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going away > go away [verb (intransitive)] > go away suddenly or hastily
fleec825
runOE
swervea1225
biwevec1275
skip1338
streekc1380
warpa1400
yerna1400
smoltc1400
stepc1460
to flee (one's) touch?1515
skirr1548
rubc1550
to make awaya1566
lope1575
scuddle1577
scoura1592
to take the start1600
to walk off1604
to break awaya1616
to make off1652
to fly off1667
scuttle1681
whew1684
scamper1687
whistle off1689
brush1699
to buy a brush1699
to take (its, etc.) wing1704
decamp1751
to take (a) French leave1751
morris1765
to rush off1794
to hop the twig1797
to run along1803
scoot1805
to take off1815
speela1818
to cut (also make, take) one's lucky1821
to make (take) tracks (for)1824
absquatulize1829
mosey1829
absquatulate1830
put1834
streak1834
vamoose1834
to put out1835
cut1836
stump it1841
scratch1843
scarper1846
to vamoose the ranch1847
hook1851
shoo1851
slide1859
to cut and run1861
get1861
skedaddle1862
bolt1864
cheese it1866
to do a bunkc1870
to wake snakes1872
bunk1877
nit1882
to pull one's freight1884
fooster1892
to get the (also to) hell out (of)1892
smoke1893
mooch1899
to fly the coop1901
skyhoot1901
shemozzle1902
to light a shuck1905
to beat it1906
pooter1907
to take a run-out powder1909
blow1912
to buzz off1914
to hop it1914
skate1915
beetle1919
scram1928
amscray1931
boogie1940
skidoo1949
bug1950
do a flit1952
to do a scarper1958
to hit, split or take the breeze1959
to do a runner1980
to be (also get, go) ghost1986
1986 Times-Advocate (Escondido, Calif.) 9 Apr. a2/4 Instead of goodbye it's: ‘I'm ghost.’
2002 S. Holmes B-More Careful xxiv. 243 I ain't never seen a broad get ghost like you, no calls, no beeps, no nothing.
2015 P. Beatty Sellout xxiv. 276 Fuck it, I'm out. I'm ghost. I decide to sneak out quietly.
2020 @LxstViibes 24 Oct. in twitter.com (accessed 7 Apr. 2021) My school counselor has gone ghost during college app season, when us seniors need him the most.

Phrases

P1. As the object of specific verbs.
a. colloquial. to give up the ghost and variants. [Compare Middle Low German sīnen geist upgeven, Middle High German sīnen geist ūfgeben (German seinen Geist aufgeben, (now usually) den Geist aufgeben), and also Middle Dutch sinen geest geven to give one's ghost, den geest begeven to forsake the ghost, Gode den geest geven to give the ghost to God (Dutch de geest geven).]
(a) Of a person or animal: to die. Cf. sense A. 1.Quot. OE shows prefixed agive v.
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the world > life > death > [verb (intransitive)]
forsweltc888
sweltc888
adeadeOE
deadc950
wendeOE
i-wite971
starveOE
witea1000
forfereOE
forthfareOE
forworthc1000
to go (also depart , pass, i-wite, chare) out of this worldOE
queleOE
fallOE
to take (also nim, underfo) (the) deathOE
to shed (one's own) blood?a1100
diec1135
endc1175
farec1175
to give up the ghostc1175
letc1200
aswelta1250
leavea1250
to-sweltc1275
to-worthc1275
to yield (up) the ghost (soul, breath, life, spirit)c1290
finea1300
spilla1300
part?1316
to leese one's life-daysa1325
to nim the way of deathc1325
to tine, leave, lose the sweatc1330
flit1340
trance1340
determinec1374
disperisha1382
to go the way of all the eartha1382
to be gathered to one's fathers1382
miscarryc1387
shut1390
goa1393
to die upa1400
expirea1400
fleea1400
to pass awaya1400
to seek out of lifea1400–50
to sye hethena1400
tinea1400
trespass14..
espirec1430
to end one's days?a1439
decease1439
to go away?a1450
ungoc1450
unlivec1450
to change one's lifea1470
vade1495
depart1501
to pay one's debt to (also the debt of) naturea1513
to decease this world1515
to go over?1520
jet1530
vade1530
to go westa1532
to pick over the perch1532
galpa1535
to die the death1535
to depart to God1548
to go home1561
mort1568
inlaikc1575
shuffle1576
finish1578
to hop (also tip, pitch over, drop off, etc.) the perch1587
relent1587
unbreathe1589
transpass1592
to lose one's breath1596
to make a die (of it)1611
to go offa1616
fail1623
to go out1635
to peak over the percha1641
exita1652
drop1654
to knock offa1657
to kick upa1658
to pay nature her due1657
ghost1666
to march off1693
to die off1697
pike1697
to drop off1699
tip (over) the perch1699
to pass (also go, be called, etc.) to one's reward1703
sink1718
vent1718
to launch into eternity1719
to join the majority1721
demise1727
to pack off1735
to slip one's cable1751
turf1763
to move off1764
to pop off the hooks1764
to hop off1797
to pass on1805
to go to glory1814
sough1816
to hand in one's accounts1817
to slip one's breatha1819
croak1819
to slip one's wind1819
stiffen1820
weed1824
buy1825
to drop short1826
to fall (a) prey (also victim, sacrifice) to1839
to get one's (also the) call1839
to drop (etc.) off the hooks1840
to unreeve one's lifeline1840
to step out1844
to cash, pass or send in one's checks1845
to hand in one's checks1845
to go off the handle1848
to go under1848
succumb1849
to turn one's toes up1851
to peg out1852
walk1858
snuff1864
to go or be up the flume1865
to pass outc1867
to cash in one's chips1870
to go (also pass over) to the majority1883
to cash in1884
to cop it1884
snuff1885
to belly up1886
perch1886
to kick the bucket1889
off1890
to knock over1892
to pass over1897
to stop one1901
to pass in1904
to hand in one's marble1911
the silver cord is loosed1911
pip1913
to cross over1915
conk1917
to check out1921
to kick off1921
to pack up1925
to step off1926
to take the ferry1928
peg1931
to meet one's Maker1933
to kiss off1935
to crease it1959
zonk1968
cark1977
to cark it1979
to take a dirt nap1981
OE Old Eng. Martyrol. (Julius) 18 Apr. (2013) 82 Se casere hi het gemartyrian, ond God wuldriende heo ageaf hire gast.]
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) 8111 He ȝaff hiss fule gast, To farenn inntill helle.
c1300 St. Martin (Laud) l. 257 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 456 With þusse worde he ȝaf þene gost.
a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Matt. xxvii. 50 Jhesus eftsoone criede with a greet voyce, and ȝaf vp the goost [E.V. c1384 Douce 369(2) sente out the spirit; L. emisit spiritum].
1574 J. Higgins 1st Pt. Mirour for Magistrates Albanacte lxviii He gasped thryse, and gaue away the ghost.
a1649 A. Weldon Cat may look upon King (1652) 80 Hee instantly gave up the ghost with these words, Gods wounds, I am slain!
1746 J. Hervey Medit. among Tombs 10 It was his last Wish..He breathed it out, and gave up the Ghost.
1879 F. T. Pollok Sport Brit. Burmah I. 127 A tiger..shot through the heart..is still capable of killing half-a-dozen men before giving up the ghost.
1978 A. Desai Devoted Son in Games at Twilight (1982) 73 His mother died soon after, giving up the ghost with a sigh that sounded positively happy, for it was her own son who ministered to her in her last illness.
2020 Nation (Nigeria) (Nexis) 1 May [She] was so seriously sick that many of her colleagues thought she would give up the ghost.
(b) figurative. Of a thing: to end, to stop working, to fall down, etc.
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1589 tr. Restorer of French Estate vii. 158 Whatsoeuer good affection or minde they had, it gaue vp the ghost at least when this goodly enterprise of the league began.
a1638 J. Mede Apostasy Latter Times (1641) i. 84 With Augustulus it [sc. the Roman Empire] gave up the ghost.
1758 W. Taylor in Coll. Poems Several Hands VI. 125 My vessels, thou know'st, No sooner are tap'd, but they give up the ghost.
1892 Idler Sept. 220 The old mill..has tumbled down and given up the ghost.
1958 New Scientist 20 Nov. 1324/3 A simple, mass-produced car..must be expected to give up the ghost to a procession of rattlings and bonkings soon after it has travelled 50,000 miles.
2013 Independent on Sunday 10 Nov. 55/5 The path gives up the ghost altogether at times and I reach down between huge boulders that fill the gully.
b. to lay a ghost.
(a) To stop a ghost which is believed to haunt a place or person from manifesting, typically by performing a religious ceremony or other ritual. See also to lay a ghost to rest at Phrases 1d.figurative in quot. 1676.
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1676 Lett. & Poems in Honour Dutchess of Newcastle 157 One Lady's pregnant Brain has slain whole hosts Of Rabbys, and quite laid their Paper ghosts, Which haunted all our Studies.
1682 N. Crouch Wonderful Prodigies Judgment & Mercy v. 125 He hired Conjurers to lay the Ghost of his Mother.
1716 J. Addison Drummer ii. 20 He knows the Secret of laying Ghosts, or of quieting Houses that are haunted.
1885 J. G. Whittier Let. June in Writings (1889) VI. 314 A Newbury minister..rode..over to Hampton to lay a ghost who had materialized himself.
2008 ETC: Rev. Gen. Semantics Apr. 150 I used to laugh at ghost-laying until I was faced during World War II with having to lay a ghost in a house in southern England.
(b) figurative. To reconcile oneself to the memory of an unpleasant or traumatic incident or period; to put such a memory behind one. Also occasionally: to resolve a controversial issue completely; to put such a controversy behind one. Cf. the more common to lay a ghost to rest at Phrases 1d(b).
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1800 Porcupine 16 Dec. He hoped..that their decision..would ratify the former verdict, and lay the ghost of average loss at rest forever in the Red Sea.
1843 Jrnl. Asiatic Soc. Bengal 12 i. 113 It is not my intention to raise, or lay the ghosts of departed objections.
1903 M. Simmins in Daily Mail 8 June 7/5 Be my wife and put an end to the matter; lay the ghosts of the past.
2001 A. Taylor Death's Own Door (2002) xvi. 108 She had not been back to Trenalt quarry since that picnic in the summer of 1938. It occurred to her with the force of a revelation that sometimes you had to go back if you wanted to lay ghosts.
c.
(a) have you seen a ghost?: used to ask why a person appears shocked, fearful, or disturbed.
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1680 J. Dryden Kind Keeper iii. i. 27 Can'st thou not speak? hast thou seen a Ghost?
1849 G. H. Rodwell Old London Bridge xxxiv. 373 ‘What the devil ails you?’ exclaimed the ruffian; ‘have you seen a ghost, that you shiver and shake so?’
a1924 J. Conrad Suspense (1925) iii. 190 Spire..stood thunderstruck at the door. ‘What's the matter with you? Have you seen a ghost?’ asked Cosmo.
2014 Oxf. Mail (Nexis) 23 May You look dreadful. White as a sheet. Have you seen a ghost?
(b) to look like one has seen a ghost and variants: to appear shocked, fearful, or disturbed.
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1714 R. Hunter Androboros iii. i. 20 Solemn saw me, and started and star'd as if he had seen a Ghost.
1843 Boston Cultivator 18 Nov. You look as if you had seen a ghost. For heaven's sake, act like a rational being, and do not stare about you with that bewildered look.
1971 P. Callow Flesh of Morning xxi. 136 I opened the door all bleary and this little ginger chap is gaping at me like he's seen a ghost.
2015 ‘C. Fifield’ Murder ties Knot v. 19 Glory? Are you all right? You look like you've seen a ghost.
d. to lay a ghost to rest.
(a) To stop a ghost which is believed to haunt a place or person from manifesting, typically by performing a religious ceremony or other ritual; = to lay a ghost at Phrases 1b. rare.
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1694 French Rogue (new ed.) xv. 158 I might lay this poor disturbed Ghost to rest; that he should be confined to the Lower Shades, and wander about the World no more.
1787 Bostonian Scintillations 24 Dear Mr. S****** pray your best, And lay the Captain's Ghost to rest.
1864 Englishwoman's Domest. Mag. Nov. 297 I do not think the good Thomas Flavel, or any other exorciser, could lay my ghost to rest.
1994 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 30 Oct. 24 Casting out demons and laying ghosts to rest is routine for Dominic Walker, Church of England vicar and exorcist.
(b) figurative. To reconcile oneself to the memory of an unpleasant or traumatic incident or period; to put such a memory behind one. Also occasionally: to resolve a controversial issue completely; to put such a controversy behind one. Cf. to lay to rest at rest n.1 Phrases 10.
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1937 Washington Post 3 Mar. 1/7 I thought we had settled that question for good and for all and laid another controversial ghost to rest.
1991 Financial Times (Nexis) 9 Dec. i. 22 Mr Bush, who delivered three brief but emotional addresses, spent most of his energy laying the ghosts of the past to rest.
2015 L. Holliday Night in with Marilyn Monroe iii. 65 Nora who's spent much of the past few months urging me to get out there and meet someone so that I can lay the ghost of my failed fling with Dillon O'Hara to rest, is a bit down on the whole idea of Adam.
2019 K. Hudson Lowborn ii. 11 I wrote my first novel..a semi-fictionalised version of my childhood that enabled me to lay at least a few ghosts to rest.
e. to raise (up) a ghost and variants: to perform a magic ritual intended to summon a ghost; to cause a ghost to appear. Also figurative: to revive the memory of an unpleasant or traumatic incident or period.
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1592 T. Nashe Strange Newes To Rdr. sig. B Poore Pierce Pennilesse, haue they turnd to a coniuring booke, for there is not that line in it, with which they doo not seeke to raise vp a Ghost.
1602 T. Lodge tr. Josephus Hist. Antiq. Iewes vi. in tr. Josephus Wks. xv. 155 Saul commandeth the witch to raise Samuel's ghost.
1795 W. Drennan Let. Excellency Earl Fitzwilliam 33 The object of the last administration was to cherish and nurture religious and political animosities; to raise up the ghost of buried prejudices;..and to divide a uniting people.
1884 B. Bosanquet et al. tr. H. Lotze Metaphysic iii. 63 We are fighting here against ghosts raised by ourselves.
1938 Essex Chron. 9 Sept. 4/6 Santos Casani..is prepared to run round an oak tree 100 times in an endeavour to raise a ghost.
2020 School Libr. Jrnl. (Nexis) 14 Aug. Shady's brother is accused of murder, and the only way to clear his name is to raise the ghost of the person he might have killed.
P2. In noun phrases.
a. ghost of life (also life's ghost): the animating or vital principle in humans and animals; that which gives life to the body, in contrast to its purely material being; the life force, the breath of life; = sense A. 1. rare.With use in quot. 2001 cf. to give up the ghost.Apparently unattested between the 15th and late 19th centuries.
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OE Ælfric Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) vi. 17 Efne ic gebringe flodes wæteru ofer eorðan, ðæt ic ofslea eall flæsc on ðam ðe is lifes gast under heofonum.
c1400 (?c1380) Cleanness (1920) l. 325 Alle þat glydez and gotz and gost of lyf habbez.
1886 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 24 Jan. 8/1 He took this dose [of opium] every day for some time, and the ghost of life didn't desert him, or the angel of death gather him during this period.
1985 T. Harrison Myst. Plays 16 Take now here the ghost of life, And receive both your souls of me.
2001 Relig. & Amer. Culture 11 135 Death in itself..was perfectly avoidable, since all that was required was refusal to give up the ‘Ghost of Life’.
b. the ghost of a person's (or thing's) former self: a weaker or inferior version of how a person (or thing) was previously.
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1748 L. Pilkington Mem. I. 141 He came over to Ireland; but so pale and dejected, that he looked like the Ghost of his former self.
1835 Berks. Chron. 27 June Our Midsummer Fair on Saturday last was but the ghost of its former self. Some twenty or thirty years ago it was highly distinguished.
1975 J. Lees-Milne Diary 25 Nov. in Through Wood & Dale (2001) 65 To my surprise she was sitting in an armchair beside her bed. Looking however the ghost of her former self.
2020 @AndreSobolewski 3 Nov. in twitter.com (accessed 19 Feb. 2021) The country will be laid to waste, its brilliant institutions becoming ghosts of their former selves.
c. the (also a) ghost of a chance: a very slim possibility; the slightest chance. Frequently in negative construction not the ghost of a chance: no possibility, no chance at all; highly unlikely.
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1827 Bell's Life in London 23 Dec. ‘The march of intellect’ has advanced too far to leave the ‘ghost of a chance’ for their miserable but impudent schemes.
1828 Mirror Lit., Amusem., & Instr. 19 July 45/2 The sailors were kept constantly at the pumps, although so instantaneous was the rush of water into the hold, that they did little or no good; there seemed in fact, not the ghost of a chance left us; even the mate had ceased whistling.
1884 Constitution (Atlanta, Georgia) 13 June 4/3 No able-bodied male patriot would stand a ghost of a chance in the matter of getting an office.
1940 H. G. Wells Babes in Darkling Wood iii. ii. 249 I would go back to Finland or Russia or anywhere if I thought I had the ghost of a chance of finding him again.
2020 Times (Nexis) 10 Dec. (Sport) 3 Just when it seemed that Italy did not have a ghost of a chance of winning the World Cup, Rossi came alive against Brazil.
d. ghost at the feast (also banquet): a person or thing whose presence spoils an otherwise pleasant event, occasion, or situation, esp. by forcing others to acknowledge a distressing, uncomfortable, or shameful fact or memory.Originally and frequently with allusion to the appearance of Banquo's ghost in the banquet scene of Shakespeare's Macbeth iii. iv.; cf. quot. 1830.Cf. spectre at the feast, a skeleton at the feast.
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1830 U.S. Tel. (Washington, D.C.) 2 Aug. How the spectre of the Hartford Convention troubles this poor man, and always rises, like Banquo's Ghost at the banquet, before him.]
1862 New Albany (Indiana) Daily Ledger 11 Aug. Turning to another column of the same paper we find charges of treason against numerous unknown citizens, acting the part of ghost at this feast, and marring its otherwise glorious features.
1903 Indian Rev. Dec. 773/2 Surely, Tolstoism is the ghost at the banquet, unnerving Europe when it is complementing itself on its civilization.
2017 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 4 Mar. 31 My friends were busy with their families and, as a childless widow, I felt like a ghost at the feast.
e. a ghost from one's (also the) past and variants: a person who or thing which makes an unexpected reappearance after a prolonged period of time.
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1883 M. Collins In Flower of her Youth III. xvii. 192 ‘What on earth is the matter?’ he said; ‘you look as if you had seen a ghost.’ ‘So I have,’ she answered; ‘a ghost from the past.’
1913 Locomotive Engineers Jrnl. Apr. 285/1 Tony was a ghost from her other life, and she..buried her head upon his shoulder.
1962 Sunday Tel. 27 May 2/1 An old ghost from the past reappeared, the so-called gold hedge share, for currency doubters.
2012 H. Wolitzer Available Man xxiv. 135 You won't believe who I ran into last week. A ghost from my past: Laurel Arquette.
f. ghost in the machine.
(a) Philosophy. Usually with the. The mind viewed as a different kind of substance or entity from the body.
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the mind > [noun] > as opposed to matter > as separate from body
ghost in the machine1948
the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > philosophy of mind-body interrelation > [noun] > mind as separate from body
ghost in the machine1948
1948 T. D. Weldon in Proc. Aristotelian Soc. 1947–8 48 139 Much of Kant's value as a philosopher lies in the attempt he made to escape from the philosophical myth which has been named ‘the ghost in the machine’.
1949 G. Ryle Concept of Mind i. 22 The dogma of the Ghost in the machine..maintains that there exist both bodies and minds; that there are mechanical causes of corporeal movements and mental causes of corporeal movements.
2005 New Yorker 4 July 43/3 Chalmers..thinks that consciousness is the ghost in the machine, the secret irreducible presence in the mind that distinguishes us from computers and goldfish.
(b) Generally: any unseen or intangible force or phenomenon which appears to be driving, managing, or interfering with a device, system, or process.
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1969 Times 27 Dec. (Saturday review section) iv The bogeyman of the Sixties was the Computer... It was treated as superstitiously as though there were in fact a ghost in the machine.
1981 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 16 Mar. p23 They think that these ‘ghosts in the machine’ are caused by the buildup of high voltages in the circuits and skin of a satellite immersed in the electrically charged plasma of the Earth's magnetosphere.
2016 Nation (Thailand) (Nexis) 24 Sept. The geek in me looks forward to the day when I can summon a driverless pod via my phone and be transported to my destination by a ghost in the machine, as it were, with minimal fuss.
g. In phrases alluding to the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843): (a) the Ghost of —— Past: a reminder of something from a time gone by; (b) the Ghost of —— Present: something that reveals the truth of a current situation; (c) the Ghost of —— Yet to Come (also Future): a warning of what may be set to happen in the future.
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1952 Labour Monthly Feb. 66 This tale has made their hair curl with two visions: the Ghost of Hitler Past and the Ghost of Hitlers Yet to Come.
1990 Times 22 Mar. 27/2 What is really worrying the markets, however, is the ghost of Budgets future.
1992 J. Kelman Some Recent Attacks 1 So the Workers' City group was presented as an unpatriotic bunch of philistines, the ghost of Stalinist past and workerist future.
2019 Sc. Farmer (Nexis) Dec. The Ghost of Farming Present—Political chaos, wild weather, 24-hour social media and the burden of poor diets mean that many farmers can be forgiven for feeling bewildered and uncertain which way to turn.
P3. Originally Theatre slang. the ghost walks and variants: salaries are paid.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > [verb (intransitive)] > be in funds
the ghost walks1831
1831 Atlas 29 May 358/3 On Saturday the actors at Drury Lane were struck with horror to find that no ‘ghost walked’; that is, that the treasury was shut.
1833 R. Dyer Nine Years Actor's Life 53 If I played with applause, it was a matter of indifference whether ‘the ghost’ walked on Saturday or not.
1883 Referee 24 June 3/2 An Actor's Benevolent Fund box placed on the treasurer's desk every day when the ghost walks would get many an odd shilling or sixpence put into it.
1952 Rushville (Indiana) Republican 1 Aug. 6/2 There is always one day when no one on the office staff calls in sick. That is the day the ghost walks—payday.
1999 L. Feuer in P. Franssen & T. Hoenselaars Author as Char. 168 [He] murmurs ‘The ghost walks’ in anticipation of payday at the Evening Telegraph.

Compounds

C1.
a. General use as a modifier in sense A. 8.
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1779 P. Pepin Strains Brit. Muses 259 (heading) The Ghost Scene in Hamlet.
1802 J. Baillie Second Marriage iv. ii, in Series of Plays II. 439 Rob. What do you want? Cook. It is ghost-time, don't you know? and your night for it too.
1830 W. Scott Lett. Demonol. & Witchcraft x. 360 Mat Lewis published it with a ghost ballad which he adjusted on the same theme.
1844 Lady G. C. Fullerton Ellen Middleton (1884) 56 The ruins of the old hall, which my maid used to call the ‘ghost-house’.
1845 E. Cook Poems 2nd Ser. 75 The orb that maketh the ghost-hour fair.
1845 G. Murray Islaford 179 The ghost-haunt of guilt.
1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 555 The rain is too thick for one to see two yards in any direction, and we seem to be in a ghost-land forest.
2021 Daily Star Online (Nexis) 4 Feb. The Tower of London can boast scores of ghost sightings including the spectre of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's executed wife, carrying her severed head.
b. As a modifier, designating a deceased or fictitious person registered in a system for the purpose of committing fraud, as in ghost voter, ghost worker, etc.; (also) designating a company registered purely to facilitate tax avoidance, fraud, etc. Cf. sense A. 11a.
ΚΠ
1855 Freeman's Jrnl. (Dublin) 11 Oct. 2/1 Even supposing the absence of ‘ghost’ voters and other frauds.
1939 N. Weyl & S. C. Weyl Reconquest of Mexico i. 30 [They] had stacked the muster rolls with legions of ‘imaginaries’, ghost soldiers, bearing the names of men long since dead, whose sole function was that of drawing pay on behalf of the officers who had resurrected them.
1974 Observer 27 Oct. 6/7 [He] is accused of making many more millions than he declared to tax authorities through the establishment of ghost companies.
1979 A. G. Lange Fraud & Abuse in Govt. Benefit Programs ii. 26 Ghost claimants may be created by employers for collection of unemployment insurance.
2020 Sun (Nigeria) (Nexis) 31 May Some of the people drawing salaries from the Federal Government coffers were ghost workers.
c. As a modifier, designating a place, building, etc., that has been deserted by its inhabitants, or has fallen into a state of disuse or dereliction, as in ghost city, ghost village, etc.Recorded earliest in ghost town n. See also ghost estate n., ghost site n., ghost station n.
ΚΠ
1894 Times (Philadelphia) 22 Apr. 22/7 The dismantled place is now known as ‘Spookville’, and as the train whirls by the passenger who is looking for California curios is shown a tent on a hill—all that remains of the ghost town.
1917 Dillon (Montana) Examiner 10 Oct. Bannack, the first capital of Montana, is today one of the ghost mining camps of the state.
1987 Soviet Life June 4/1 The Civil War had ended, and in its wake it left ghost factories and mills, rusting and silent.
1999 Times (Nexis) 19 June Milan becomes a ghost city in August when everyone leaves for the beach.
2019 Financial Times (Asian ed.) (Nexis) 8 June 20 White-tailed eagles, lynx and wolves now count among those species that inhabit the ghost villages abandoned years ago.
d. As a modifier, designating a person named on a record who proves difficult or impossible to trace, as in ghost student, ghost patient, etc. Cf. sense A. 11b.
ΚΠ
1925 Washington Post 22 Mar. (Features section) 3/2 The question [of] how to deal with ‘ghost students’, who never even show their faces at schools, and a number of other riddles in connection with the new immigration law remain to be cleared up.
1985 Times 2 Feb. 29/2 The TSB also has hundreds of thousands of ‘ghost’ customers who will also be entitled to preferential treatment if they come out of the woodwork. ‘Ghost’ customers hold accounts which have not been used since the TSB computerised all its accounts in 1971.
2021 Doctors (transcript of TV programme) (Nexis) 10 Feb. Whether through mismanagement or purposeful fraud, these ghost patients cost our NHS £88 million a year, so it's vital we get them off the books.
e. As a modifier, designating a catering business, often operating from low-rent or non-commercial premises, that prepares food ordered online for delivery either directly to customers or to associated outlets; as in ghost kitchen, ghost restaurant, etc.Perhaps originally from sense A. 11, denoting a fake or illicit business, but now probably associated with figurative senses at A. V., since such enterprises have no visible public presence.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > equipment for food preparation > cooking establishment or kitchen > [adjective] > type of
step-saving1978
ghost2015
2015 NBC News: I-Team Rep. 10 Nov. (transcribed from TV programme) We analysed one hundred menus on Seamless and GrubHub. Slightly more than ten per cent had addresses or names that are false or unregistered. Seamless GrubHub is now asking customers to e-mail the companies if they discover ghost restaurants.
2018 Albert & Logan News (Austral.) (Nexis) 21 June 44 Taco Burger made a name for itself in Western Australia, where it used ghost kitchens to deliver its signature Mexican spiced burgers via Uber Eats.
2021 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 25 Feb. In the delivery app era, the ghost franchise can be a lifeline for the independent restaurateur.
C2.
a. With participles, agent nouns, and verbal nouns, forming compounds in which ghost expresses the object of the underlying verb, as in ghost-fearing, ghost-seeing (adjectives and nouns); ghost lover, etc.Cf. ghost hunter n., ghost-raiser n., ghost seer n., etc.
ΚΠ
1742 P. Francis & W. Dunkin tr. Horace Odes i. xxiv. 115 The Ghost-compelling God..will not..unbar the Gates of Death.
1838 J. C. Hare & A. W. Hare Guesses at Truth (ed. 2) 1st Ser. 232 This should be borne in mind by political and philosophical ghostseers, ghostlovers, and ghostmongers.
1840 T. P. Thompson Exercises (1842) V. 130 Your modern Indian..is no ghost-fearing wretch.
1886 ‘M. Gray’ Silence of Dean Maitland I. i. x. 272 Dr. Everard, what prescriptions have you for young ladies who take to ghost-seeing?
1892 Proc. Amer. Mission Assoc. 62 Superstition..in the form of ghost-fears..pervades every community of..the Afro-Americans in the South.
1894 Westm. Gaz. 5 Sept. 2/1 The great ghost-seeing age is between twenty and twenty-nine.
1969 Daily Mail 26 Sept. 12/3 Enjoyable reading for country-lovers, ghost believers or not.
2010 New Yorker 11 Oct. 38/2 It was a wet, gloomy day, perfect for ghost-spotting.
b. With other nouns, with the sense ‘that is a spectral or phantasmal ——’.Recorded earliest in ghost ship n.2 1. See also ghost train n. 2a.
ΚΠ
1806 T. Moore Epistles, Odes 321 The above lines were suggested by a superstition very common among sailors, who call this ghost-ship, I think, ‘the flying Dutch-man’.
1829 W. Maginn Tales Mil. Life (London ed.) II. xxv. 274 ‘A ghost coach, Sir,’ replied Cooly; ‘I've hard ov 'em often and often in Ireland’.
1896 W. L. Alden in News & Observer (Raleigh, N. Carolina) 26 Jan. 2/3 I came to the conclusion..that the Pullman with the wet bedclothes and the rotten bellcord, was nothing more or less, than the ghost car. However, I didn't say much more..about it at the time, for the less a man talks about seeing ghosts the better it is for him.
1994 T. B. Stone Headless Bicycle Rider 98 It..kept going, the wheels of its ghost bike making no sound high above the road.
2013 P. Reeve Goblins vs Dwarves 161 It was a ghost sword..and no sharper than smoke.
c. With other nouns, with the sense ‘that is the disembodied spirit of a dead ——’, as in ghost man, ghost child, ghost dog, etc.
ΚΠ
1826 Daily National Jrnl. (Washington, D.C.) 3 Mar. The ghost boy.
1838 T. Carlyle in London & Westm. Rev. Jan. 301 An impersonal ghost-hero.
1864 Murray's Handbk. Durham & Northumberland ii. 162 A ghost-dog is believed to follow the midwife when she goes to her duties through the streets of Newcastle.
1983 19th-cent. Fiction 37 519 The ghost child whom the adult narrator encounters..is also..a resurrection of an ever-present child within.
2017 E. L. Sánchez I am not your Perfect Mexican Daughter xv. 182 Our cousin Valeria told us about La Llorona, the ghost woman who wails through the streets because she drowned her own children.
d. As a modifier, with the sense ‘that is —— by a ghost or ghosts’, as in ghost-haunted, ghost-inhabited, etc.
ΚΠ
1592 Countess of Pembroke tr. R. Garnier Antonius v. in tr. P. de Mornay Disc. Life & Death sig. N3v Can I yet liue, Yet longer liue in this Ghost-haunted tombe?
1627 T. May tr. Lucan Pharsalia (new ed.) ix. 42 From thence they saile away To ghost-fill'd Tænarus.
1744 J. Lockman tr. J. de La Fontaine Loves Cupid & Psyche 79 A terrible triple-headed Dog..keeps eternal Watch before Pluto's Ghost-inhabited Palace.
1870 W. Morris Earthly Paradise: Pt. IV 225 Over the empty ghost-trod way.
1880 G. Meredith Tragic Comedians I. iv. 83 Hamlet was poisoned—ghost-poisoned.
1884 National Rev. Mar. 132 He might easily imagine it to be one of those weird, grey, ghost-haunted castles.
1897 Edinb. Rev. Apr. 451 The one was ghost-ridden, the other fancy free.
1984 B. Bhattacharye Goddess named Gold (1986) xxxi. 251 To think that Nago would have a ghost-possessed parent!
2012 E. Nuzum Giving up Ghost 20 David asks why I visibly shuddered when he pointed the ghost-inhabited room out to the fellow blossom watcher.
e. Forming adjectives with the sense ‘like a ghost; that is as —— as a ghost’, as in ghost white, ghost pale, etc.
ΚΠ
1849 H. Melville Mardi III. lix. 347 But through the gloom, and on the circumvallating reef, the breakers dashed ghost-white.
1850 E. B. Browning Poems (new ed.) II. 298 What angel, but would seem To sensual eyes, Ghost-dim?
1858 E. C. Mogridge Poems 189 The moon, ghost-wan against the clear bright heaven.
1896 R. Kipling Seven Seas 61 A sloop-of-war, ghost-white and very near.
1926 M. Leinster Dew on Leaf 246 Through a tear-mist she looked at a myriad ghost-pale lights.
1950 A. Seton Foxfire iv. 69 The little brittle bush, ghost-gray along the roadside, sent forth its incense perfume.
1954 L. MacNeice Autumn Sequel iii. 27 Two great swans, ghost-white.
2012 Independent 18 July 40/4 We peered over the edge of the boats at vast forests of kelp and the ghost white wisps of moon jellyfish below.
2014 M. Lawrence Emperor of Thorns Prol. The pillowed alabaster, ghost-faint even to the eye of Kai's mind.
2016 L. Erdrich LaRose 221 One day she was sitting high in a tree... Something large flowed at her, ghost-silent.
C3.
ghost band n. chiefly Jazz a big band that performs under the name of a deceased leader, typically playing the original band's arrangements, or music written in a similar style.In later use sometimes more generally (chiefly in the context of rock or pop music): a band that performs under its original name, despite featuring few or no members of the original line-up (cf. quot. 1989).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musician > instrumentalist > company of instrumentalists > [noun] > band > type of
waits1298
consort1587
wait player1610
wind music1650
the fiddles1676
military band1775
German band1819
street band1826
brass band1834
promenade band1836
horn-band1849
pipe band1867
wind-band1876
Hungarian band1882
jazz band1916
jazz orchestra1916
big band1919
road band1922
Schrammel quartet1924
showband1926
spasm band1926
dance-band1927
marching band1930
name band1932
ork1933
silver band1933
sweet band1935
Schrammel orchestra1938
pop band1942
jug band1946
steel band1949
rehearsal band1957
skiffle band1957
ghost band1962
support band1969
support group1969
scratch band1982
1962 Down Beat 26 Apr. 15/2 Ballroom operators as businessmen seem committed to playing it safe, to rely on the ancient and established reputations of the so-called ghost bands—those that use a dead leader's name.
1989 San Diego Union-Tribune (Nexis) 7 Jan. (Lifestyle section) e1 It is the first time they have appeared as the Byrds in 15 years, a move prompted by their desire to prevent ex-bandmates Clark and Clarke from fronting ghost bands under the same name.
2001 H. Martin & K. Waters Jazz (2002) xii. 336 There is a long tradition of ghost bands. The most important early ghost band was the one associated with Glenn Miller.
ghost bike n. a bicycle painted white and left as a memorial at a site where a cyclist was fatally injured in a collision with a motor vehicle.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > vehicle propelled by feet > [noun] > cycle > bicycle > other types of bicycle
forty-four1821
roadster1875
rear-steerer1882
pneumatic1890
path-racer1896
featherweight1901
free-wheeler1908
fairy cycle1920
superbike1935
sit-up-and-beg1939
bakfiets1956
high-riser1965
all-terrain cycle1970
chopper1971
mountain bike1972
shopper1973
mixte1975
BMX1978
cruiser1978
ojek1983
boda boda1995
e-bike1998
fixie2001
ghost bike2004
2004 Pittsburgh Post-Gaz. 27 May b 4/1 The roadside memorials are the work of Ghost Bike Pittsburgh... Its goal with the ghost bike project is simple: ‘to help Pittsburgh become a city where cyclists and motorists can coexist, to the benefit of both groups.’
2016 Spacing Winter 22/1 Ghost bikes—scrapped bicycles painted white and fixed at the site of a fatal collision—are the latest addition to the convention of honouring the dead.
† ghost candle n. Obsolete rare (perhaps) a candle lit near a dead body before burial, intended to ward off ghosts or malevolent spirits.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > obsequies > funeral equipment > [noun] > candle
soul candle1389
ghost candle1885
1885 E. Peacock in Academy 26 Sept. 204/2 So we lighted the ghost-candles round her bed.
ghost car n. a car used for a specific task (typically surveillance) which bears no outward sign of its purpose; spec. (chiefly Canadian) an unmarked vehicle used by the police.
ΚΠ
1931 Times 2 Oct. 9/1 The appearance of a radio van on ‘investigation service’ in any district almost invariably results in an extraordinary rise in licenses. There is one car, however, which gives no clue to its purpose, and the engineers have christened it the ‘ghost car’. There is nothing to distinguish it outwardly from any other cars, yet it is fitted with the most modern devices for detection.
1962 Albertan (Calgary) 26 Nov. Opposition to the use of ghost cars operated by policemen without uniforms was expressed at the annual meeting of the directors of the Alberta Motor Association.
2007 Province (Vancouver) 19 Mar. a4 One cruiser was a marked squad car, the other a ghost car.
† ghost-coal n. Scottish Obsolete rare a piece of dead coal that is white instead of glowing or burning; = sense A. 16.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > burning > products of burning > [noun] > cinder
coaleOE
cinder1530
ghost1807
ghost-coal1824
1824 J. Mactaggart Sc. Gallovidian Encycl. 217 Gaistcoal, a coal, that when it is burned becomes white.
ghost detainee n. an unregistered person held anonymously in a detention facility.
ΚΠ
2004 A. M. Taguba Article 15-6 Investig. 800th Mil. Police Brigade 26 The various detention facilities..have routinely held persons brought to them by Other Government Agencies (OGAs) without accounting for them, knowing their identities, or even the reason for their detention. The Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Centre (JIDC) at Abu Ghraib called these detainees ‘ghost detainees’.
2014 Star (S. Afr.) (Nexis) 3 Sept. 13 Guantanamo was just the beginning, but the reality is there are many secret detention facilities and ghost detainees who are hidden.
ghost-demon n. the deified or animate spirit of a deceased person (cf. ghost god n.).Cf. demon n. II.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > classical deity > [noun] > daemon
ghost goda1638
ghost-demon1677
daimon1852
1677 T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. III 105 It was their custome to build Shrines or Temples at such places, where the bodies or ashes of their Ghost-Demons lay entombed.
1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture II. 103 Ancient and modern European tales of baleful ghost-demons.
2006 Smithsonian Sept. 58/1 The Rev. Johannes Veldhuizen had told me that Korowai he'd met had thought him a ghost-demon until they spied him bathing in a stream and saw that he came equipped with all the requisite parts of a yanop, or human being.
ghost estate n. chiefly Irish English a housing estate which has been largely abandoned; (now) esp. a newly-built estate in which most of the units are uninhabited or unfinished.In early use probably not a fixed collocation.In later use, in the Republic of Ireland, ghost estates are associated chiefly with the economic recession of 2008 that followed the ‘Celtic Tiger’ period of rapid growth in the 1990s and early 2000s, when a surplus of housing was built.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [noun] > housing estate > type of
ghost estate1978
1978 Ulster Herald 11 Mar. 5/2 To passers-by a new 33-house Executive estate at Crosswen..seems a ghost estate. It looks completed, but one wonders why the houses are vacant.
1994 Independent (Nexis) 6 June 6 He fears a return of the race violence which erupted in Southall in the 1970s and the creation of ‘ghost’ estates deserted by terrified victims of racial abuse.
2019 @DiarmuidOM 6 May in twitter.com (accessed 23 May 2019) I can't fathom how anyone can think that the planning system which gave us ghost estates..is somehow now competent.
ghost family n. (among the Atuot, Dinka, and Nuer people of South Sudan) a family resulting from a ghost marriage (ghost marriage n.), in which any children are considered to be the offspring of the deceased husband. [Probably after ghost marriage n., but compare Nuer ciek jooka wife of a ghost and gat jooka child of a ghost] .
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinship group > family > [noun] > family raised by one parent
ghost family1938
single parent (family)1969
1938 E. E. Evans-Pritchard in Zeitschrift für vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft 52 309 We may therefore describe the family that develops out of a ghost-marriage as a ‘ghost-family’ in acknowledgement of the ghostly status of the pater of the children.
1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Kinship & Marriage among Nuer iii. 110 The family that develops out of a ghost-marriage may be called a ghost-family in acknowledgement of the ghostly status of the pater of the children. It consists of a ghost, his wife, his children born in the union of marriage, and the kinsman who begat these children and acts as father to them.
2004 Transeuphratène 28 128 The differences between the ghost family and the legal family occur only later, when the sons grow up because they continue the lineage of the ghost.
ghost fishing n. the process by which fish and other marine animals become trapped in or ensnared by lost or discarded fishing equipment; cf. ghost gear n., ghost net n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > fishing > type or method of fishing > [noun] > other methods of fishing
tickling1616
twitchelling1689
yair-fishing1796
ice-fishing1842
foul-hooking1860
pointing1860
fish-wood1861
muddying1877
snatching1878
roll casting1897
jack fishing1899
cod jigging1921
free spooling1937
noodling1937
electrofishing1950
shocker1953
ghost fishing1963
catch-and-release1973
1963 R. Pinney Vanishing Wildlife vi. 124 Probably the most exasperating man-made hazards to any species in recent times are the ‘ghost nets’ that continue to trap hundreds of fish years after the nets are lost at sea... It is hoped that this deplorable ‘ghost fishing’ can be stopped in the near future.
2019 Lat. Amer. Jrnl. Aquatic Res. (Nexis) 47 Several shellfish fisheries require the use of biodegradable netting/twine as a means to reduce or mitigate the negative effects of ghost fishing.
ghost form n. a word or word form that has come into existence by error rather than established usage, e.g. as a result of a typographical error, the incorrect transcription of a manuscript, an incorrect definition in a dictionary, etc. (cf. ghost word n.). [Probably after ghost word n.]
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > word > [noun] > ghost word
ghost word1887
ghost name1891
ghost form1894
1894 K. Meyer Hibernica Minora (Anecdota Oxoniensia: Mediaeval & Mod. Ser. VIII) Introd. p. ix The worst offence of which the scribes were guilty..consists in their tagging on a modern ending to an old form... Thus veritable ghost-forms arose, which never had any existence in the living language.
1933 L. Bloomfield Lang. xxvii. 487 Chaucer's phrase in derring do that longeth to a knight ‘in daring to do what is proper for a knight’, was misunderstood by Spenser, who took derring-do to be a compound meaning ‘brave actions’ and succeeded in introducing this ghost-form into our elevated language.
2018 Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 138 593 Careful rechecking of the autographs and photographs of some examples also allows Kloekhorst to identify likely ghost forms.
ghost gear n. fishing gear, such as nets and lines, which has been lost or discarded in the ocean, and presents a danger to the marine environment and its creatures; cf. ghost net n.
ΚΠ
1983 Life 1 Dec. 22/2 Abandoned gear poses another problem. Called ‘ghost gear’ by those studying the problem, it may drift for years, endlessly fishing on its own.
2019 Scotsman (Nexis) 6 Nov. Just this month, a pregnant whale was discovered tangled in ghost gear in Orkney, and seabirds on Mullion Island..were found to have been ingesting ghost gear.
ghost god n. the deified or revered spirit of a deceased person (cf. ghost-demon n.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > classical deity > [noun] > daemon
ghost goda1638
ghost-demon1677
daimon1852
a1638 J. Mede Wks. (1664) i. xlii. 320 In Religious graves and sepulchres..they hoped to find their Ghost-gods.
1887 St. Louis (Missouri) Globe-Democrat 17 July 14/6 The Ainos household or ghost gods are represented by a number of sticks stuck about, with shavings attached at one end.
2012 B. G. Shrestha Sacred Town of Sankhu v. 65 People living around this area use it [sc. the passage] for worship and as a place to offer foods to the effigy of the ghost god (bhu dyo) during the festival of Gathāmmugah.
ghost image n. a faint, transient, secondary, or spurious image caused by reflection, equipment defect, etc. (cf. sense A. 17).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > cinematography > a film > [noun] > faults
ghost image1872
flicker1899
jitter1943
strobing1959
flickering1968
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > photography > a photograph > qualities and effects > [noun] > other qualities and effects
ghost1851
solarization1853
flare1867
bronzing1868
ghost image1872
shine1880
orthochromatism1889
false image1892
flare-spot1893
halo1941
acutance1952
1872 Lancet 27 Jan. 131/1 With regard to the reflected or ‘ghost’ image, Mr. Lawrence, so far back as the year 1863, described its production in precisely the same manner.
1904 J. McIntosh Photogr. Ref. Bk. (ed. 2) ii. 43 The ghost image is a reflection of the bright object in front of the camera reflected from the back lens upon the front lens, and finally transmitted to the plate.
1990 Bellcore News 11 Apr. 4/3 There's no such thing as bad HDTV—a picture with background ‘snow’ or ‘ghost images’ is simply not HDTV.
2012 A. Duckworth Flash Photogr. Field Guide 133/1 The flash is instant and will provide a sharp main image, but any movement will cause a ghost image.
ghost light n. now rare phosphorescent light seen hovering or floating at night, esp. over marshy ground, that appears to move away when approached; an instance of this; a will-o'-the-wisp; cf. corpse-light n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > light > light emitted under particular conditions > [noun] > phosphorescence > will-o'-the-wisp
fox-fire1483
foolish fire1563
ignis fatuus1563
fool's fire1583
Kit with the canstick or candlestick1584
going fire1596
will-o'-the-wisp1596
meteor1597
firedrake1607
wisp1618
ambulones1621
Dick-a-Tuesday1636
friar's lantern1645
gillian burnt-tail1654
Jill-burnt-tail1654
Jack-o'-lantern1658
fatuous fire1661
wildfire1663
wandering fire or light1667
Jack-a-Lent1680
fairy light1722
spunkie1727
Jill-o'-the-wisp1750
fen-fire1814
fatuus1820
marsh-light1823
feu follet1832
wisp-lighta1847
hob-lantern1847
ghost light1849
elf-fire1855
Peggy-with-her-lantern1855
fatuous light1857–8
marsh-fire1865
swamp fire1903
Min-Min1950
1849 J. Pereira Elements Materia Medica (ed. 3) I. ii. 58 Luminous appearances (corpse-lights; ghost-lights;) are also seen by them over graves.
1897 Folk-Lore Sept. 215 A. F. says that he himself saw what they call a ghost-light.
2006 A. M. Foley Having my Say ii. 7 Some claim Robbins Landing is haunted with ghost lights, but any lights I saw around there, I think were just marsh gas.
ghost line n. Metallurgy an indistinct line visible on a steel surface due to segregation of certain constituents, esp. phosphorus; cf. sense A. 19.
ΚΠ
1905 Page's Weekly 29 Sept. 675/2 No steel maker could produce ingots absolutely free from ghost lines.
1926 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. 113 109 When the ascending segregates are impeded by the growing crystals, they tend to elongate and form typical stringlike formations of segregate known as ‘ghost lines’.
2003 Ann. Bk. ASTM Standards: Iron & Steel Products (Amer. Soc. Testing & Materials) I. v. 9/1 Hairlines, stringers, shadow seams, ghost lines, etc., which appear after the axles have been finish machined and burnished or ground.
ghostlore n. the body of stories and beliefs relating to ghosts.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [noun] > ghost-lore
nerterology1800
spectrology1820
ghostology1824
ghostlore1833
1833 Hobart Town Mag. Nov. 152 In my infancy I was well grounded in Ghost lore.
1893 H. R. Haweis in Fortn. Rev. Jan. 120 Literature is deeply dyed with ghostlore.
2001 Fortean Times Jan. 29/1 At the heart of popular ghostlore is a fatal contradiction. Folk seem ready to believe that ghosts are souls of dead people; but how, then, do we account for the clothing of the phantoms or apparitions of inanimate objects such as chains, coaches, buildings..or aircraft.
ghost marriage n. a legal marriage in which one or both of the couple are deceased.In China, ghost marriages most often occur to continue the lineage of a deceased person. The deceased person, who can be either member of the couple, is typically represented by a bamboo effigy, which is burnt following the wedding ceremony.Among the Atuot, Dinka, and Nuer people of South Sudan, ghost marriages are between a woman and a deceased man, who is typically represented by his brother; any resulting children are considered to be those of the deceased (cf. ghost family n.). [With use with reference to China compare Chinese mínghūn (already in Middle Chinese; compare Chinese míng underworld (see the discussion at hell money n. at hell n. and int. Compounds 2) and hūn marriage).
In use with reference to Africa apparently coined by E. E. Evans-Pitchard (compare quot. 1937, discussing the Nuer people), probably after a Nuer expression, e.g. cueen jooka ciek, literally ‘wife's ghost marriage’.]
ΚΠ
1935 China Press (Shanghai) 16 Nov. 7/1 (headline) ‘Ghost’ marriages popular.
1937 E. E. Evans-Pritchard in Sudan Notes & Rec. 20 212 There are a number of bio-domestic groups other than the family that springs from simple legal marriage. These are based on unions of different types: ghost-marriage, leviritic marriage, widow-concubinage, and concubinage.
1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Kinship & Marriage among Nuer iii. 109 A very common feature of Nuer social life is a union I have called ghost-marriage. If a man dies without legal male heirs, a kinsman of his..ought to take a wife to his name.
2014 Times 31 Oct. 44/2 The existence of China's ‘ghost marriage’ market is widely known, but few cases make it to court.
ghost name n. a name that has come into existence by error rather than established usage, e.g. as a result of the incorrect transcription of a manuscript (cf. ghost word n.). [Probably after ghost word n.]
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > word > [noun] > ghost word
ghost word1887
ghost name1891
ghost form1894
1891 Knowledge Dec. 223/2 Professor Skeat has said nothing about what may be called Ghost-names, which are, perhaps, more numerous than Ghost-words, inasmuch as in a manuscript, however badly written, the context gives some clue to an undecipherable word, whereas in the case of a name there is no such aid.
1896 Daily News 3 Jan. 5/2 Grampians is a ghost-name, derived from a misreading of Tacitus's Mons Graupius.
2015 Bull. Amer. Soc. Papyrologists 52 269 The name..is not attested elsewhere and is in fact a ghost name.
ghost net n. a fishing net which has been lost or discarded in the ocean, and presents a danger to the marine environment and its creatures; cf. ghost gear n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > fishing > fishing-tackle > net > [noun] > other nets
Peter netc1280
flue1388
wade1388
stalker1389
shove-net1418
trod-net1523
butt1533
web1533
fagnet1558
seur1558
trimnet1558
trollnet1558
pot-net1584
treat net1584
weir-net1585
hagan1630
henbilt1630
rugnet1630
basket-net1652
landing-net1653
stream-net1662
wolf1725
ram's horn1792
gill net1795
wolf-net1819
trap-net1856
forewheel1861
stow-net1871
lave net1875
kettle-bail1881
beating-net1883
keeve-net1883
net basin1883
wing-neta1884
trap-seine1891
lead-net1910
ghost net1959
1959 World Fishing Dec. 21/2 The threat arising from ‘ghost’ nets is likely to grow more serious in those waters where gill-net fishing is practised on a large scale.
2002 U.S. News & World Rep. 4 Nov. 58/3 The largest pieces of plastic—miles-long discarded fishing nets and lines—take an obvious toll. These ‘ghost nets’ snare and drown thousands of seals, sea lions, and dolphins a year.
ghost note n. Music (a) a (typically unaccented) musical note which has a rhythmic value but little or no discernible pitch; (b) a quiet drumbeat played between the principal beats in order to create a richer rhythmic pattern.
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1928 Gramophone Oct. 220/2 He does hot solos, hot obbligatos, ghost notes, breaks, and his phrasing has to be heard to be believed.
1998 Bass Player Nov. 59 Ex. 3 is the verse groove of ‘Butter Biscuit’, which Oteil dirties up throughout with ghost notes.
2006 Mod. Drummer Nov. 140/2 The unaccented snare notes should be played softly, as ghost notes. The accented snare notes can be played as rimshots.
ghost payroller n. U.S. colloquial (chiefly derogatory) a person receiving a salary for a job that exists only nominally, or that requires little or no work, and which has been awarded through patronage, nepotism, or to ensure political allegiance.
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society > occupation and work > worker > worker according to manner of working > [noun] > corrupt or unscrupulous
place-monger1718
jobber1739
jobman1741
seductionist1817
operator1828
careerist1917
ghost payroller1952
cowboy1972
society > occupation and work > worker > worker according to manner of working > [noun] > slow or ineffectual
piddler1602
slobberer1787
go-slower1920
ghost payroller1952
1952 Daily Iowan 29 Feb. 4/1 This was the latest development in a continuing investigation of ghost payrollers in the county.
2002 Chicago Tribune 18 Mar. i. 12/1 We wink, we nod, we joke that so-and-so's dopey brother-in-law is a ghost payroller who sure plays a lot of golf.
ghost racket n. originally U.S. a prank, scam, or criminal scheme making use of ghosts (in various senses); originally with reference to simulating haunting or ghostly activity in order to conceal a crime, later chiefly with reference to fraud (see sense A. 11).
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1866 Goulburn (New S. Wales) Herald & Chron. 18 Aug. 5/1 (headline) The ghost racket.
1881 National Democrat (Jeffersonville, Indiana) 18 Aug. There is a new unfurnished cottage on the corner of the Seventh and Indiana avenue, which was the scene of a ghost racket the other night.
1886 Chicago Tribune 20 Oct. 11 The most novel ghost-racket on record has just been worked by a Jersey detective.
2004 Africa News (Nexis) 5 July The ghost racket became so profitable that civil servants amassed wealth at the expense of the state.
ghost-raiser n. a person who performs a magic or other ritual intended to summon a ghost; a person who causes a ghost or spirit to appear (cf. to raise (up) a ghost).
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the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > sorcerer or magician > [noun] > that deals with demons > one who calls up spirits
conjurerc1384
goetian1569
conjuress1582
invocator1604
exorcista1616
goetic1652
evocator1794
ghost-raiser1798
evocatrix1847
1798 R. Clifford tr. A. Barruel Mem. Hist. Jacobinism IV. xi. 347 In public, under the disguise of quacks and visionary ghost-raisers [Fr. visionnaires], these new adepts spoke of nothing but their powers of evoking spirits, raising and interrogating the dead, and a hundred other phenomena of a similar nature.
1908 Daily Chron. 30 June 3/1 An efficient new ghost-raiser presents himself.
2016 D. Loughridge Haydn’s Sunrise, Beethoven’s Shadow iv. 197 The magic lantern was the instrument of choice for ghost-raisers and a primary target of demystifiers.
ghost seer n. a person believed to have the ability to see ghosts.
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the world > the supernatural > the occult > spiritualism > [noun] > spiritualist or medium
ghost seer1799
sensitive1846
medium1851
spirit medium1851
spiritualist1851
spiritist1854
manifestationist1865
trance-medium1878
spookist1902
trumpet medium1912
witch of Endor1919
metapsychist1922
1799 P. Will tr. A. Knigge Pract. Philos. Social Life II. xiv. 250 Amongst adventurers of different descriptions, none are more dangerous to people of a lively imagination than ghost-seers [Ger. Geisterseher], alchymists and mystic imposters.
1886 Cent. Mag. Feb. 544/2 And paled with that swift backward look That ghost-seers have at twilight hour.
2018 Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) (Nexis) 25 June Then one day, Alexander Blackfoot of the Society for the Relocation of Wayward Spirits comes seeking Jane's skills as a ghost seer, and the three young people are thrown together in a wild, haunted adventure where things never seem to go as planned.
Ghost Shirt n. (also with lower-case initial(s)) now chiefly historical a shirt or shirt-like garment created and worn by a Ghost Dancer, reputed to give the wearer spiritual powers and protection; cf. Ghost Dancer n.The most well-known power ascribed to the Ghost Shirt is the belief that the garment would render the wearer bulletproof (cf. quot. 2006). [Apparently after Ghost Dance n.]
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for body or trunk (and limbs) > [noun] > shirt > types of > other
bloody shirta1586
ruffle shirt1749
ruffled shirt1754
dicky1781
overshirt1805
camise1812
mill tog1821
boiled shirt1853
Crimean shirt1853
Crimea shirt1857
shirtwaist1859
shirt1867
polo shirt1887
zephyr1887
Ghost Shirt1890
Henley1890
negligée shirt1895
turtle-neck1897
rugby shirt1902
bush shirt1909
tunic shirt1918
safari shirt1921
button-down1924
thousand-miler1929
aloha shirt1936
buba1937
zoot shirt1942
Hawaiian shirt1955
sweater-shirt1964
beach shirt1966
kimono shirt1968
dashiki1969
1890 Clinton (Missouri) Eye 29 Nov. Ghost shirts warranted bullet proof, are now offered for sale for $5 each, by the Indians who, a week ago, refused to part with them at any price.
1971 D. Brown Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee (1991) xviii. 434 Kicking Bear replied that if the Indians wore the sacred garments of the Messiah—Ghost Shirts painted with magic symbols—no harm could come to them.
2006 T. M. Kerstetter God's Country, Uncle Sam's Land iii. 91 Although several other tribes that practiced the Ghost Dance adopted the ghost shirt, only the Sioux imbued it with bulletproof qualities.
ghost sign n. an old sign or notice displaying obsolete information, or advertising a defunct product or business; (now) esp. a painted sign of this type that remains visible on a building.
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1941 O. J. Grisier How to make Sign Advertising Pay xx. 152 Ghost Sign Number 1. The paint was old. It was coming off in many places.
1949 Riverine Grazier (New S. Wales) 11 Jan. 2/7 Large notices warn travellers of ‘R.A.A.F. Prohibited Area’, ‘Bachelor Strip—10 miles’—all ghost signs.
2005 J. Buick Lethal Dose x. 51 On the side of the building was a prominent ghost sign in white paint on red brick, promoting the long-defunct Bronx Lounge.
ghost site n. Computing (a) a computer system for which a location is recorded, but which has either been deleted or was never created (cf. site n. 8a); (b) a website that is no longer maintained or updated but can still be accessed and viewed online.
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1984 S. L. Ganesh Availability Global Information in Computer Networks (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Calif. Berkeley) iii. 109 Consider what may happen if a large number of non-existent ‘ghost’ sites are imported into the view by malfunctioning sites.
1995 InfoWorld 4 Dec. 61/1 (heading) Predicting the Internet's catastrophic collapse and ghost sites galore in 1996.
2016 @petersterne 12 Sept. in twitter.com (accessed 24 Feb. 2021) Gawker.com is now a ghost site. Posts are still up, but author pages, comments, anything interactive, is gone.
ghost soul n. (in the context of spiritualism and shamanism) the soul of a human or animal that animates the body but can exist and travel separately from it, as in sleep, death, etc., and which can appear to others as a semblance of the human or animal to which it belongs. [Coined by E. B. Tylor, who apparently first used it in quot. 1869, but formally introduced it slightly later, in his book Primitive Culture (1871) 387.]
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the world > life > source or principle of life > vital principle > [noun]
souleOE
lifeOE
spiritusOE
bloodOE
ghostOE
life and soulOE
quickship?c1225
quicknessc1230
breatha1300
spirita1325
spark1382
naturec1385
sparkle1388
livelinessa1398
rational soula1398
spiracle1398
animal spirit?a1425
vital spiritc1450
soul of the world1525
candle1535
fire1576
three souls1587
vitality?1592
candlelight1596
substance1605
vivacity1611
animality1615
vividity1616
animals1628
life spring1649
archeus1651
vital1670
spirituosity1677
springs of life1681
microcosmetor1684
vital force1702
vital spark (also flame)1704
stamen1718
vis vitae1752
prana1785
Purusha1785
jiva1807
vital force1822
heartbeat1828
world-soul1828
world-spirit1828
life energy1838
life force1848
ghost soul1869
will to live1871
biogen1882
ki1893
mauri1897
élan vital1907
orgone1942
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [noun]
soulOE
huea1000
ghostOE
fantasyc1325
spiritc1350
phantomc1384
phantasmc1430
haunterc1440
shadowa1464
appearance1488
wraith1513
hag1538
spoorn1584
vizarda1591
life-in-death1593
phantasma1598
umbra1601
larve1603
spectre1605
spectrum1611
apparitiona1616
shadea1616
shapea1616
showa1616
idolum1619
larva1651
white hat?1693
zumbi1704
jumbie1764
duppy1774
waff1777
zombie1788
Wild Huntsman1796
spook1801
ghostie1810
hantua1811
preta1811
bodach1814
revenant1823
death-fetch1826
sowlth1829
haunt1843
night-bat1847
spectrality1850
thivish1852
beastie1867
ghost soul1869
barrow-wight1891
resurrect1892
waft1897
churel1901
comeback1908
1869 E. B. Tylor in Internat. Congr. Prehistoric Archæol. 1868 23 The belief in ghost-souls among a low tribe always forms part of a larger doctrine which admits the existence of other spiritual beings.
1924 W. B. Selbie Psychol. Relig. 29 As formulated by Professor Tylor this theory of a quasi-material ghost-soul is to be regarded as the typical and almost universal source of religious ideas and practices.
1941 J. Henry Jungle People (1964) vi. 67 Her husband's ghost-soul led her away, and that is why she died.
2012 Pioneer (India) (Nexis) 12 Mar. There were long winter evenings, when a favourite family elder would be surrounded and pestered with requests to repeat a story. It would inevitably feature a ghost soul. We all knew where to gasp, ooh and aah, during such sessions.
ghost squad n. (a) a unit of covert detectives or police officers; (b) South African (usually with capital initials) a branch of the police responsible for checking the passes (pass n.4 7e) of black people (now historical).Frequently with the in references to specific units or branches.
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society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > branch or part of police force > specific
water1552
armed police1787
special police1804
detective force1849
traffic police1883
vice squad1905
drug squad1913
blue force1920
ghost squad1922
flying squad1927
Sweeney1936
morality squad1945
courtesy patrol1961
strike force1961
pussy posse1963
drugs squad1965
vice1967
mobile1971
uniform branch1972
uniform1978
NCIS1991
1922 San Francisco Examiner 20 Sept. 17/2 The latest in federal prohibition raiding circles is the ‘ghost squad’... Members of the squad are to remain unidentified even at the federal prohibition office. All reports are to be secretly filed.
1947 Daily Mail (Hull) 2 May 4/4 In this warfare against an entirely new batch of criminals..many new and effective ideas are being tried. One is the formation of a ghost squad of picked detectives posing as deserters.
1960 A. Hutchinson Road to Ghana (1st U.S. ed.) iii. 29 Prisoners were queuing at street corners where the ‘ghost squad’ was demanding passes.
1993 City Press (Johannesburg) 12 Dec. 23 Remember the past brainwave of the ‘Ghost Squad’ whose job was to stop us for pass offences.
2021 Nottingham Post (Nexis) 3 Mar. 14 London's Met Police has its own version... It was previously nicknamed the ‘ghost squad’ because it was so secretive.
ghost station n. a disused railway station, esp. one through which trains still pass.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > station > other types
stopping station1840
way station1840
flag-station1852
by-station1864
transfer station1869
junction1876
stationette1891
station house1891
halt1910
stub station1916
ghost station1928
whistle-stop1934
parkway1972
1928 H. V. Morton Call of Eng. iii. 47 There is a dead station in York. No trains ever steam into its desolate platforms... I explored this ghost station.
1984 Ambit No. 99 42 Somewhere between St. Germain des Prés and Odèon the train would slow down and pass a ghost station that no longer existed.
2015 J. Nadin Joe all Alone 79 You know there's ghost stations, on the Tube. Where they all shut up now, but you can see if you peer out the window?
ghost story n. a story about ghosts or the supernatural, intended to be frightening or thrilling.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > other fictional narrative > [noun] > stories with specific subject
love tale1592
love story1594
school story1664
ghost story1730
church story1834
1730 J. Oldmixon Hist. Eng.: House of Stuart Index sig 9S/1 The Ghost Story told by Lilly the Conjurer.
1897 Westm. Gaz. 6 July 2/3 The visitor awoke with the true ghost story ‘feeling of chilliness’ and an impression that there was ‘something’ in the room.
2005 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 10 Feb. 17/4 She..thrilled and terrified her children by the fireside..with ghost stories and legends of heroes and the sidhe.
ghost town n. originally U.S. a town partially or completely devoid of its inhabitants; (in early use) esp. a former boom town that has been deserted as a result of the closing down of the industry or trade that sustained it.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town > [noun] > other types of town
country town1598
post town1635
Residenz1824
garden town1835
Residenzstadt1841
hometown1851
tin town1884
ghost town1894
new town1918
shopping strip1935
twin town1955
1894 Times (Philadelphia) 22 Apr. 22/7 The dismantled place is now known as ‘Spookville’, and as the train whirls by the passenger who is looking for California curios is shown a tent on a hill—all that remains of the ghost town.
1916 Overland Monthly June 501 Her remembrances of the ‘ghost towns’ of Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Montana, when they were booming centers of activities, are intensely interesting.
1931 G. F. Willison Here they dug Gold 71 Today all lie ghost towns smelling of the long slow processes of ruin and decay.
1952 H. Innes Campbell's Kingdom i. iii. 51 Come Lucky was a rotten clutter of empty shacks. It was my first sight of a ghost town.
2020 New Yorker 30 Mar. 38/1 In the week that followed, New York became a ghost town in a ghost nation on a ghost planet.
ghost word n. a word or word form that has come into existence by error rather than established usage, e.g. as a result of a typographical error, the incorrect transcription of a manuscript, an incorrect definition in a dictionary, etc.
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the mind > language > linguistics > linguistic unit > word > [noun] > ghost word
ghost word1887
ghost name1891
ghost form1894
1887 W. W. Skeat in Trans. Philol. Soc. 1885–7 20 350 Report upon ‘Ghost-words’, or Words which have no real Existence... We should jealously guard against all chances of giving any undeserved record of words which had never any real existence, being mere coinages due to the blunders of printers or scribes, or to the perfervid imaginations of ignorant or blundering editors.
1888 W. W. Skeat in Notes & Queries 30 June 504/1 The word meant is estures, bad spelling of estres; and eftures is a ghost-word.
1977 Time 26 Dec. 54/2 He [sc. Murray] found a special class of ‘ghost words’, misspelled or ill-defined items that had been admitted to some previous dictionary, thus undergoing an illegitimate birth.
2019 TendersInfo (Nexis) 21 May The project will uncover previously unrecorded words, excise ghost words and suggest new or revised definitions.
C4. In the names of plants and animals.
ghost bat n. any of several bats having white or light grey coloration; esp. a large bat native to northern Australia, Macroderma gigas (family Megadermatidae), which has large elongated ears, a prominent nose leaf, and dark eyes. [With quot. 1914 (with reference to an African bat) compare scientific Latin phasma , former specific name of this bat (G. M. Allen 1911), specific use of classical Latin phasma ghost, spectre (see phasma n.).]
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1914 Bull. Mus. Compar. Zoöl. Harvard 58 348 Ghost Bat. Eptesicus phasma... Five specimens of this white-winged species were collected at various points along the Blue Nile.
1981 Ecos 28 29/2 Macroderma gigas (the ghost bat) and Rhinonicteris aurantius (the orange horseshoe bat) are from genera found only in this country.
1997 Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 1 June 75/4 The ghost bat, found in central Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, has only about 10 breeding sites left and an estimated population of 5000.
2011 J. P. Rafferty Forests & Grasslands i. 35 Many tropical bats, such as ghost bats, bulldog bats, and vampire bats, prefer hollow trees as day roosts.
ghost bird n. any of various birds that have been likened to a ghost, esp. in appearance or in having an eerie call; (also) a bird of ill omen; cf. jumbie bird n.
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1851 Proc. Zool. Soc. London 19 61 They are held here, as elsewhere, to be birds of ill omen, portending death, wherefore they are called ‘Jumbi’, or Ghost Birds, by the negroes.
1876 Forest & Stream 10 Aug. 4/1 I heard and saw the chats (Icteria virens) for the first time... This melody is so often spoiled by an intermingling of such uncouth, mournful sounds, that one wonders not that the Indians should have called them the ‘ghost-birds’.
1913 Sydney Mail 16 Apr. 26/2 The cries suggest the idea of misery. In fact, the Norfolk Islanders call it [sc. the mutton bird] the ‘ghost bird’.
2001 D. Else et al. Walking in Brit. (Lonely Planet) (ed. 2) 32 Barn owls..are a fantastic sight as they fly silently along hedgerows... They are often called ghost bird or screech owl for very good reason.
ghost chilli n. (also more fully ghost chilli pepper) a variety of chilli pepper grown in South Asia; = ghost pepper n.The ghost chilli is one of the hottest chillis known. [Erroneous translation of Assamese bhoṭ jalakīyā, literally ‘Bhutanese chilli’, with misidentification of the first element as bhūt ghost.]
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2007 Assoc. Press Internat. (Nexis) 17 Feb. Internat. News The pepper's name [sc. Bhut Jolokia] translates as ghost chili, Bosland said. ‘We're not sure why they call it that, but I think it's because the chili is so hot, you give up the ghost when you eat it.’
2014 Flybe Uncovered Jan. 45/2 The most popular [chilli], though, is the Bhut Jolokia, or Ghost Chilli, sitting at the top of the Scoville scale at 1.1 million units.
2017 Northern Territory (Austral.) News (Nexis) 23 Oct. 3 The Hotel Darwin..is holding its first Chilli Festival, and willing contestants will have to stomach the ghost chilli and the Carolina reaper—the world's hottest of its kind.
ghost crab n. †(a) the ghost shrimp Caprella linearis (obsolete); (b) any of various pale-coloured shore crabs constituting the subfamily Ocypodinae, native to tropical and subtropical regions and having unequally sized claws and elongated eyestalks.
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1854 J. Hogg Microscope ii. i. 271 Ghost-crab (Caprella).
1902 Bull. U.S. Fish Comm. 1900 20 ii. 6 Ocypode albicans... Sand Crab; Ghost Crab.
1951 G. Klingel Bay xiii. 202 Ghost crabs seem to lead a life of pleasant abandon, scurrying blithely back and forth on their inexplicable errands.
2019 D. Currie et al. Nat. Hist. Bahamas 156 Ghost crabs (subfamily Ocypodinae) are common throughout the tropics and subtropics on sandy beaches.
ghost gum n. chiefly Australian any of various Australian eucalypts of the genus Corymbia which have white or whitish bark, esp. C. papuana; (also) the wood of such a tree; cf. white gum n.2 2.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > non-British trees or shrubs > Australasian trees > [noun] > eucalyptus trees
yellow box1662
gum tree1676
white gum tree1733
whip-stick1782
peppermint1790
red gum tree1790
red mahogany1798
white gum1798
box1801
blue gum1802
eucalyptus1809
box tree1819
black-butted gum1820
bloodwood1827
white ash1830
blackbutt1833
morrel1837
mountain ash1837
mallee scrub1845
apple gum1846
flooded gum1847
Moreton Bay ash1847
mallee1848
swamp gum1852
box-gum1855
manna gum1855
white top1856
river gum1860
grey box1861
woolly butt1862
marlock1863
fever tree1867
red ironbark1867
river white gum1867
karri1870
yellow jacket1876
eucalypt1877
yapunyah1878
coolibah1879
scribbly gum1883
forest mahogany1884
yellow jack1884
rose gum1885
Jimmy Low1887
nankeen gum1889
slaty gum1889
sugar-gum1889
apple box1890
Murray red gum1895
creek-gum1898
eucalyptian1901
forest red gum1904
river red gum1920
napunyah1921
whitewash gum1923
ghost gum1928
snow gum1928
Sydney blue gum1932
salmon gum1934
lapunyah1940
1928 Home (Sydney) 2 Jan. 22 (caption) The Ghost Gums. The Mackay Expedition Camping At Peterman Range.
1967 Jrnl. Ecol. 55 285 Some eucalypts are ‘ghost gums’ with smooth white bark (Eucalyptus brevifolia, E. aspera), some are bloodwoods with rough persistent bark of a pinkish tinge (E. dichromophloia).
2019 Centralian Advocate (Austral.) (Nexis) 19 Mar. 12 The Ghost Gum grows in most soils, found naturally growing in open sandy country and in rocky areas and grows proudly in the centre of my front yard as the dominant tree.
ghost moth n. (originally) a European moth, Hepialus humuli; (in later use more widely) any of various moths comprising the family Hepialidae.Probably originally so called from the silvery white upperside of the wings of the male Hepialus humuli and its courtship display hovering above vegetation at dusk.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > family Hepialidae > hepialus humuli (ghost moth)
ottera1400
miller's soul1585
ghost moth1776
otter moth1804
ghost swift1819
1776 W. Withering Bot. Arrangem. Veg. Great Brit. II. 495 The Ghost Moth, Phalæna Humuli, feeds upon the roots, and the mottled Orange Moth upon the stalks [of Burdock].
1885 W. F. Kirby Brit. Butterflies, Moths & Beetles 84 The Ghost Moth (Hepialus Humuli)..has a peculiar hovering flight, and is common in meadows on summer evenings.
1969 Victorian Year Bk. 83 i. 19 The primitive Ghost Moths (Hepialidae) are well represented in Victoria by a number of often large and attractive species.
2010 P. Marren & R. Mabey Bugs Britannica 290/2 Few have seen the wisp in recent times, and the Ghost Moth is reported to be less common than it was.
ghost orchid n. any of several orchids having white or whitish flowers; esp. (a) an epiphytic orchid native to Florida and the West Indies, Dendrophylax lindenii, which has a reduced stem and leaves, and fragrant flowers with two long tendrils on the lower lip; (b) a terrestrial mycotrophic orchid native to Europe and northern Asia, Epipogium aphyllum, which lacks chlorophyll and is whitish-pink in colour.
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1881 Manch. Courier 4 June 6/2 In Dr. Ainsworth's exhibit was a beautiful plant of the lovely ghost orchid as it is sometimes called Phalœnopsis grandiflora of the purest ivory white.
1952 Orchid Jrnl. Sept. 323/2 The rare Ghost Orchid!
1956 Times 17 Dec. 8/6 In the early autumn of 1954 we came on a colony of Epipogium aphyllum—the spurred coral-root, or ghost orchid.
1998 S. Orlean Orchid Thief 25 If you could figure out how to housebreak any wild orchid, especially a pretty one like the ghost orchid, you would probably become a rich person.
2017 Oxf. Rev. Bks. 23 Nov. 10/1 The ghost orchid has no leaves and no chlorophyll, feeding itself through fungus on its roots rather than through photosynthesis.
ghost pepper n. a variety of chilli pepper grown in South Asia, a natural hybrid between Capsicum frutescens and C. chinense, which is one of the hottest chillis known. [Compare slightly earlier ghost chilli n. and the discussion at that lemma.]
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2008 Global Broadcast Database (transcript of TV programme) (Nexis) 2 Apr. This one is the ghost pepper. This is the hottest pepper known to man. On the list it would be a million Scoville units.
2020 Food & Dining Fall (Louisville ed.) 56/2 The chicken here ranges through 4 levels of heat, the hottest using the notorious ghost pepper.
ghost plant n. (a) Indian pipe, Monotropa uniflora, which lacks chlorophyll and is typically whitish-pink in colour; (b) any of several amaranths (genus Amaranthus) that form tumbleweeds; esp. A. albus (rare).
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the world > plants > particular plants > plants perceived as weeds or harmful plants > poisonous or harmful plants > parasitic plants > [noun] > monotropa genus (Indian pipe)
Monotropa1753
wax-plant1801
Indian pipe1822
pinesap1824
tobacco-pipe1845
ghost plant1856
fir-rape1861
Indian pipestem1869
the world > plants > particular plants > plants perceived as weeds or harmful plants > weed > [noun] > tumble-weed
ghost plant1886
tumble-weed1887
weed1899
1856 Proc. Essex Inst. 1848–56 1 240 Monotropa uniflora; Ghost Plant, or Indian Pipe.
1886 Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 13 46 Dr. Newberry has told us that it [sc. Amarantus albus] is also known as the ‘ghost plant’ in allusion to the same habit, bunches flitting along by night producing a peculiarly weird appearance.
1986 Outdoor Okla. July 24/1 There are a number of species [of tumbleweed] including ghost plant, old-witch grass, bird's nest moss and winged-pigweed.
2018 Aberdeen Evening Express (Nexis) 19 Oct. 12 The ghost plant (Monotropa uniflora), an eerie white specimen found in shady woods is a rare sight.
ghost shrimp n. (a) any of various marine amphipods having slender elongated bodies and comprising the family Caprellidae (cf. skeleton shrimp n.); (b) any of various marine decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Axiidea, esp. of the family Callianassidae; (c) any of various transparent marine or freshwater shrimps of the genus Palaemonetes (family Palaemonidae), esp. the freshwater species P. paludosus, which is popular in aquaria.
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1886 Jrnl. N.-Y. Microsc. Soc. 2 149 Caprella acuminifera... This singular crustacean, [is] sometimes called the ‘ghost-shrimp’.
1916 Jrnl. Entomol. & Zool. 8 65 Callianassa longimana... These ‘ghost shrimps’ are fairly common under stones in tide pools.
1945 J. Steinbeck Cannery Row v. 16 It sells the lovely animals of the sea, the sponges,..the snapping shrimps, and ghost shrimps so transparent that they hardly throw a shadow.
1960 R. Carrington Biogr. Sea x. 107 The grotesque ghost-shrimp Caprella moves up and down the stems..with an irregular motion like the looping of a caterpillar.
1992 BBC Wildlife Jan. 10/1 These flats are home to huge numbers of ghost shrimps, a popular bait item which supports a small but expanding fishery.
2018 @KevinJonesVet 31 Jan. in twitter.com (accessed 22 Jan. 2021) Hoping these Ghost Shrimp (Palaemonetes paludosus) will enjoy tank cleaning duties..!
ghost swift n. (more fully ghost swift moth) a European moth, Hepialus humuli, the male of which has wings with a silvery white upperside; cf. ghost moth n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > Heterocera > [noun] > family Hepialidae > hepialus humuli (ghost moth)
ottera1400
miller's soul1585
ghost moth1776
otter moth1804
ghost swift1819
1819 G. Samouelle Entomologist's Compend. 245 Hep[ialus] Humuli (ghost swift).
1921 Boy's Own Paper June 445/2 By night, look for the weird ghost swift moth, which appears and disappears as it flies.
2003 Brit. Jrnl. Entomol. & Nat. Hist. 16 254 Several male and female Ghost Swift Hepialus humuli (L.) came to Norman's light on the bridge as darkness fell.

Derivatives

ghost-wise adv. in the manner of a ghost; with regard to ghosts.
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1861 Portland (Maine) Transcript 16 Nov. 260/4 It was ludicrous to watch the unhappy new comers emerging ghost-wise from the misty indistinctness where no foothold was visible.
1905 Daily Chron. 16 May 4/5 He weeps, ghost-wise, at the auctioneer's bills in his bedroom.
2020 @mostly_cheese 14 Oct. in twitter.com (accessed 22 Feb. 2021) The overwhelming majority of haunted stuff happens in hallways and stairways, which is why a studio apartment is the best choice ghost-wise.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

ghostv.

Brit. /ɡəʊst/, U.S. /ɡoʊst/
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: ghost n.
Etymology: < ghost n.With sense 4 compare slightly earlier ghosting n. 2 and also ghosted adj. 3. In 5 after ghost train n. 3. In sense 6 perhaps after to be (also get, go) ghost at ghost adj., although this is first attested slightly later.
1.
a. transitive. literary and poetic. Of a ghost: to haunt (a person or place).In quot. 1814 with reference to a person attempting to scare another by producing apparently ghostly effects or phenomena.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > ghost or phantom > [verb (transitive)] > haunt
haunt1597
ghosta1616
sprighta1616
phantom1845
spook1883
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of being eerie > be eerie [verb (transitive)] > scare with pretended apparitions
ghost1814
a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) ii. vi. 13 Iulius Cæsar; Who at Phillippi the good Brutus ghosted . View more context for this quotation
1814 E. S. Barrett Heroine (ed. 2) III. xxxvii. 214 ‘I wonder if he can be ghosting her, all this time?’ said Betterton.
1879 H. N. Hudson Hamlet 10 The being thus ghosted was held to be no such trifling matter as we are apt to consider it.
1950 W. de la Mare Inward Compan. 55 Daughters of Joy lived here..Now..They ghost the abandoned street.
1978 P. Monette Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll (1987) 200 But he didn't see us, arguing as he was with the whole departed family that ghosted the house.
b. transitive. figurative. To have an unpleasant effect on or cause problems for (someone or something) continuously or repeatedly; (now usually) spec. to be a persistent and disturbing presence in the mind or thoughts of (a person).
ΚΠ
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy Democritus to Rdr. 19 Aske not with him in the Poet,..what madnesse ghostes this old man, but what madnesse ghostes vs all?
1923 W. O'Brien Irish Revol. 161 As these pages are written,..Irish deputations are ghosting the British Ministers and the Treasury with vain lamentations that their promises to Ireland have been once more cynically broken.
1960 A. Kapelner All Naked Heroes xiv. 138 In the black sore hours, Mary ghosted his mind.
2012 Canwest News Service (Nexis) 6 Apr. Even as an adult, Mr. K. ghosted my dreams: Out of nowhere he'd pop up and shoot me, slug me in the stomach or snatch something important from me.
†2. intransitive. To die; = to give up the ghost at ghost n. and adj. Phrases 1a. Obsolete.Apparently only recorded in the medical writings of Gideon Harvey (1636 or 1637–1702).
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > [verb (intransitive)]
forsweltc888
sweltc888
adeadeOE
deadc950
wendeOE
i-wite971
starveOE
witea1000
forfereOE
forthfareOE
forworthc1000
to go (also depart , pass, i-wite, chare) out of this worldOE
queleOE
fallOE
to take (also nim, underfo) (the) deathOE
to shed (one's own) blood?a1100
diec1135
endc1175
farec1175
to give up the ghostc1175
letc1200
aswelta1250
leavea1250
to-sweltc1275
to-worthc1275
to yield (up) the ghost (soul, breath, life, spirit)c1290
finea1300
spilla1300
part?1316
to leese one's life-daysa1325
to nim the way of deathc1325
to tine, leave, lose the sweatc1330
flit1340
trance1340
determinec1374
disperisha1382
to go the way of all the eartha1382
to be gathered to one's fathers1382
miscarryc1387
shut1390
goa1393
to die upa1400
expirea1400
fleea1400
to pass awaya1400
to seek out of lifea1400–50
to sye hethena1400
tinea1400
trespass14..
espirec1430
to end one's days?a1439
decease1439
to go away?a1450
ungoc1450
unlivec1450
to change one's lifea1470
vade1495
depart1501
to pay one's debt to (also the debt of) naturea1513
to decease this world1515
to go over?1520
jet1530
vade1530
to go westa1532
to pick over the perch1532
galpa1535
to die the death1535
to depart to God1548
to go home1561
mort1568
inlaikc1575
shuffle1576
finish1578
to hop (also tip, pitch over, drop off, etc.) the perch1587
relent1587
unbreathe1589
transpass1592
to lose one's breath1596
to make a die (of it)1611
to go offa1616
fail1623
to go out1635
to peak over the percha1641
exita1652
drop1654
to knock offa1657
to kick upa1658
to pay nature her due1657
ghost1666
to march off1693
to die off1697
pike1697
to drop off1699
tip (over) the perch1699
to pass (also go, be called, etc.) to one's reward1703
sink1718
vent1718
to launch into eternity1719
to join the majority1721
demise1727
to pack off1735
to slip one's cable1751
turf1763
to move off1764
to pop off the hooks1764
to hop off1797
to pass on1805
to go to glory1814
sough1816
to hand in one's accounts1817
to slip one's breatha1819
croak1819
to slip one's wind1819
stiffen1820
weed1824
buy1825
to drop short1826
to fall (a) prey (also victim, sacrifice) to1839
to get one's (also the) call1839
to drop (etc.) off the hooks1840
to unreeve one's lifeline1840
to step out1844
to cash, pass or send in one's checks1845
to hand in one's checks1845
to go off the handle1848
to go under1848
succumb1849
to turn one's toes up1851
to peg out1852
walk1858
snuff1864
to go or be up the flume1865
to pass outc1867
to cash in one's chips1870
to go (also pass over) to the majority1883
to cash in1884
to cop it1884
snuff1885
to belly up1886
perch1886
to kick the bucket1889
off1890
to knock over1892
to pass over1897
to stop one1901
to pass in1904
to hand in one's marble1911
the silver cord is loosed1911
pip1913
to cross over1915
conk1917
to check out1921
to kick off1921
to pack up1925
to step off1926
to take the ferry1928
peg1931
to meet one's Maker1933
to kiss off1935
to crease it1959
zonk1968
cark1977
to cark it1979
to take a dirt nap1981
1666 G. Harvey Morbus Anglicus ix. 45 Euryalus..taking leave of..Lucretia.., prœcipitated her into such a Love fit, that within a few hours after she Ghosted.
1689 G. Harvey Art of curing Dis. by Expectation vii. 51 A day or two after..the Lad having been miserably tortured, Ghosted.
3.
a. intransitive. To move or act in a manner characteristic or reminiscent of a ghost; (now) spec. to glide smoothly and effortlessly, esp. without being spotted or touched by someone else. In early use also transitive with it.In the spec. use typically in sporting contexts.Usually followed by an adverb or prepositional phrase expressing direction, e.g. She ghosted through to score a try.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > secrecy, concealment > stealthy action, stealth > stealthy movement > move stealthily [verb (intransitive)] > move off or away
steal1154
atslip?c1225
atcreepc1275
to steal one's wayc1385
glide1393
atslikec1400
fleetc1400
flinch1563
outsteala1586
leer1586
shift1594
shab1699
slive1707
ghost1833
to oil out1945
1833 Fraser's Mag. Nov. 576 Doomed to wither..and, after ghosting it about for their hour..‘Be buried’.
1914 Drama May 294 The will-o'-the-wisp spotlights ghosting it about hither and yon at utterly unnatural cross-purposes.
1940 C. Day Lewis Poems in Wartime 16 And thistledown blows Ghosting above the rank hedgerows.
1981 Daily Mail 12 Oct. 38/2 He made his name last season by doing a Martin Peters, ghosting into the box when he wasn't expected and finishing as decisively as any striker.
2020 Guardian (Nexis) 15 Jan. He dribbled past five England players before ghosting away from Shilton.
b. intransitive. Of a sailing vessel: to make relatively good progress when there is very little wind. Usually followed by an adverb or adverbial phrase expressing movement, as along, up, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > action or motion of vessel > [verb (intransitive)] > make progress > with very little wind
ghost1878
1878 Bell's Life in London 29 June 8/4 The Maggie, sailing in inimitable style, ghosted away from the Bonita.
1926 D. Byrne Brother Saul xvii. 450 Every inch of sail was set as they ghosted along.
1990 National Trust Mag. Spring 32/1 We sailed round the Lizard and ghosted up on an evening breeze to tie up at St Michael's Mount harbour.
2012 Cornish Guardian (Nexis) 22 June 104 They could only watch, as Chris Hazell, partnered tonight by temporary crew member John Mark, ghosted along apparently in a wind of their own.
4.
a. transitive. To write (a book, article, etc.) for another person, under whose name it is then published. Also in extended use with reference to other kinds of artistic work, performance, etc. Cf. ghost-write v. 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > art or occupation of writer or author > be the author of or write (a work) [verb (transitive)] > write as hack
ghost1904
ghost-write1930
1904 Sunday Jrnl. (Indianapolis) 24 Jan. iii. 10/3 For the first long story I ‘ghosted’..I received £2 15s a thousand words.
1925 T. E. Lawrence Let. 21 Apr. (1938) 474 A very distinguished person's wife once asked me if I would care to edit or ‘ghost’, her husband's diary.
1999 C. Larkin Virgin Encycl. of Jazz 96/1 His playing was ghosted by a different trumpeter on the soundtrack.
2017 New Statesman 5 May 64/1 I've spent some quality time over the years with footballers ghosting their autobiogs, a job that usually takes up to a year.
b. intransitive. To act as a ghostwriter for another person. Also in extended use with reference to other kinds of artistic work, performance, etc. Cf. ghost-write v. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > art or occupation of writer or author > follow occupation of writer [verb (intransitive)] > write as hack
ghost1905
ghost-write1927
1905 Mirror 30 Oct. 11/3 It was John Pym who had written letters to Balshaw's banker... John Pym ‘ghosted’ for the man whom he worshipped.
1917 Fine Arts Jrnl. 35 29/2 He went to Belgium and ‘ghosted’ for other sculptors.
1959 M. Cumberland Murmurs in Rue Morgue viii. 57 A man of talent who has failed—to the point where he is ready to ghost for a man like Galotin.
2020 Times (Nexis) 19 Mar. 52 At the age of 35, he ghosted for Muhammad Ali, and..interviewed Broadway legends such as the composers Irving Berlin and Richard Rogers.
5. transitive. Prison slang (chiefly British). To move (a problematic prisoner) from one prison to another during the night, typically without the prisoner being forewarned. Also with out.
ΚΠ
1970 T. Parker Frying-pan 48 He's been ghosted, swagged off in the night just like that to some other prison.
1995 J. Cameron Vinnie got blown Away 10 What the fuck I'm doing back in Wandsworth God only knows. Down in Ford minding my own business.., then suddenly ghosted out one day.
2011 J. J. Connolly Viva La Madness 71 Ted was ghosted up to Durham, the other end of the country.
6. intransitive. colloquial (originally and chiefly U.S., in African-American usage). To leave, esp. suddenly or hurriedly; to be gone. Cf. to be (also get, go) ghost at ghost adj.
ΚΠ
1983 N. Proffitt Gardens of Stone xxviii. 363 Where's Wildman? If that sad sack is ghosting again, I'll have his butt on a biscuit for breakfast.
2000 P. Beatty Tuff 10 We need to be out, son. Rollers going to show up any minute now... Let's ghost.
2019 D. Young What doesn't kill you makes you Blacker Introd. 8 So I tried really hard to ghost by just slowly moving toward the exit.
7. transitive. To ignore or pretend not to know (a person); spec. to cease to respond to (a person) on social media, by text message, etc., esp. as a means of ending a relationship suddenly and without explanation; (hence) to end a relationship or association with (a person) by ceasing all communication.
ΚΠ
2007 @Vonster 3 Apr. in twitter.com (accessed 24 June 2019) Just now realized I ghosted Gedeon on our interview? Doh!
2016 Toronto Life Feb. 63 I was dating someone I met on Tinder when she all of a sudden ‘ghosted’ me.
2020 Washington Post (Nexis) 14 Feb. c1 A 2019 YouGov survey of U.S. adults found that 30 percent of them had ghosted a romantic partner or friend. Yes, friends ghost one another. Relatives do, too. Workers ghost their employers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2021; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.eOEv.a1616
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