ghost

ghost · noun

imported

Definitions

noun

  1. 1.

    The spirit or soul of a dead person believed to appear to the living as a pale, shadowy form.

  2. 2.

    A faint trace or possibility of something.

  3. 3.

    (as verb) To move silently and stealthily.

  4. 4.

    (informal, as verb) To suddenly stop communicating with someone without explanation.

  5. 5.

    A person who secretly writes for another person who takes credit.

Forms

plural: ghosts

Phrases & expressions

  • •
    give up the ghost — to die; to stop working
  • •
    ghost of a chance — a very slim possibility
  • •
    ghost town — an abandoned or nearly empty town
  • •
    Holy Ghost — the third person of the Christian Trinity
  • •
    ghost in the machine — the concept of mind separate from body

Related words

See also: ghosts, haunt, phantom, spirit
Synonyms: apparition, phantom, specter, spirit

Etymology

From Old English gast ("breath, spirit, soul"), from Proto-Germanic gaistaz. Related to German Geist ("spirit, mind"). The gh spelling was influenced by Flemish gheest.