ghastly
adjective /ˈɡɑːstli/
  /ˈɡæstli/
(comparative ghastlier, superlative ghastliest)
- (of an event) very frightening and unpleasant, because it involves pain, death, etc. synonym horrible
- a ghastly crime/murder
 - She woke up in the middle of a ghastly nightmare.
 
 - (informal) (of an experience or a situation) very bad; unpleasant synonym terrible
- The weather was ghastly.
 - It's all been a ghastly mistake.
 - When she mentioned redundancies, for one ghastly moment, I thought she meant me.
 
 - (informal) (of a person or thing) that you find unpleasant and dislike very much synonym horrible
- her ghastly husband
 - This lipstick is a ghastly colour.
 - I look ghastly in red.
 
 - [not usually before noun] ill or upset synonym terrible
- I felt ghastly the next day.
 - Do I look as ghastly as I feel?
 
 - (literary) very pale in appearance, like a dead person
- His face was ghastly white.
 - She had a ghastly pallor.
 
 
Word OriginMiddle English: from obsolete gast ‘terrify’, from Old English gǣstan, of Germanic origin; related to ghost. The gh spelling is by association with ghost. The sense ‘objectionable’ dates from the mid 19th cent.