Dictionary

gashly en · ADJ

Etymology

Perhaps a dialectal alteration of ghastly, by association with gash.

Meanings

1. Ghastly, horrible.
   • "It's a dead man. Yes, indeedy; naked, too. He's ben shot in de back. I reck'n he's ben dead two er three days. Come in, Huck, but doan' look at his face--it's too gashly." 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter IX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:
   • My ladies' maid, who was troubled with nerves, declared she could never sleep alone in such a "gashly, rummaging old building;" and the footman, who was a kind-hearted young fellow, did all in his power to cheer her up. 1824, Washington Irving, Tales of a Traveller:
   • I have a great mind to break all your gashly images about the head of your fine Miss, in her silks and satins;’—mistaking his lay-figure for a living model of the highest sort. 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson, published 1986, page 243:
   • Listen here, Swing, old-timer, I got a long and gashly tale of wickedness to pour into those lily-white mule ears of yores. 1921, William Patterson White, The Heart of the Range:

Forms