Dictionary

ghoulish en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡuː.lɪʃ/
• (US) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English ghoul Proto-Indo-European *-iskos Proto-Germanic *-iskaz Proto-West Germanic *-isk Old English -isċ Middle English -isch English -ish English ghoulish From ghoul + -ish.

Meanings

1. Of or pertaining to ghouls.
   • Ay, even the droll humour and solidity of Khalid, are shaken, aroused, by the ghoulish greed, the fell inhumanity of these sharpers. 1910 January 12, Ameen Rihani, “Via Dolorosa”, in The Book of Khalid, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published October 1911, →OCLC, book the first (In the Exchange), page 29:
2. Of or pertaining to corpses and graverobbing.
   • We had that afternoon dug a grave in the cellar, and would have to fill it by dawn -- for although we had fixed a lock on the house, we wished to shun even the remotest risk of a ghoulish discovery. 1922, H. P. Lovecraft, Herbert West: Reanimator:
3. Fascinated by corpses; morbid.
   • We’ll be neither ghoulish nor squeamish about death; it happens, the chances increase with age, and we need to take the possibility into consideration. 2024 October 25, Elie Honig, “How the 2024 Election Will Reshape the Supreme Court”, in New York:
   • At times it seemed almost an afterthought, during an extended trial subject to ghoulish fascination, that Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson died terrible deaths. 2025 July 7, Nino Bucci, “Australian mushroom murders: Erin Patterson guilty verdict ends weeks of laborious detail and ghoulish fascination”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Forms

Deriveds

ghoulishness · unghoulish · ghoulishly

Relateds

ghastly · macabre

Synonyms

ghouly