Dictionary

ghastily en · ADV

Etymology

Apparently ghastly + -ly.

Meanings

1. In a ghastly manner.
   • […] in their various attitudes of death / My murdered children’s mute and eyeless sculls / Glared ghastily upon me. 1821, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab, section VII, page 68:
   • When he tosseth his head, / The drear-white steed, / And ghastily champeth the last moon-ray,— / What angel there / Can lead him away, / That the living may rule for the Dead? 1850, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Drama of Exile”, in Mrs. Browning’s Poems, page 58:
   • Johnnie’s face […] is ghastily beaten, bloodied, cut and swollen, eyes shut, neck limp; 1949, James Agee, “The Blue Hotel”, in Agee on Film, Volume II, New York: McDowell Obolensky, published 1960, page 453:

Forms

Synonyms

ghastlily