ghost
(gōst)
[Middle English gost, from Old English gāst, breath, spirit.]
noun
- The spirit of a dead person, especially one believed to appear in bodily likeness to living persons or to haunt former habitats.
- The center of spiritual life; the soul.
- A demon or spirit.
- A returning or haunting memory or image.
- A slight or faint trace: just a ghost of a smile.
- The tiniest bit: not a ghost of a chance.
- A faint, false image, as:
- A secondary image on a television or radar screen caused by reflected waves.
- A displaced image in a photograph caused by the optical system of the camera.
- A false spectral line caused by imperfections in the diffraction grating.
- A displaced image in a mirror caused by reflection from the front of the glass.
- Informal A ghostwriter.
- A nonexistent publication listed in bibliographies.
- A fictitious employee or business.
- Physiology A red blood cell having no hemoglobin.
verb: ghost·ed, ghost·ing, ghosts.
intransitive verb
- Informal To engage in ghostwriting.
- To move noiselessly like a ghost: “Two young deer ghosted out of the woods” (Nancy M. Debevoise)
transitive verb
- To haunt.
- Informal To ghostwrite: was hired to ghost the memoirs of a famous executive.
derivatives
- ghost́y
- adjective
