Definition of "ghastly" []

• Inspiring shock, revulsion, or horror by or as if by suggesting death; terrifying: a ghastly murder. (adjective)
• Suggestive of or resembling ghosts. (adjective)
• Extremely unpleasant or bad: "in the most abominable passage of his ghastly little book” ( Conor Cruise O'Brien). (adjective)
• Very serious or great: a ghastly error. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Rather, it reflects expectations that this week's run of what they termed ghastly U.S. data will prompt the Fed to plan further extraordinary measures to boost the economy."
• "Prince Charles is known to have a profound dislike for what he calls "ghastly TV weather-girl names", and is thought to dislike "Kate" almost as much "Di"."
• "Daughtry, to behold his captain, frayed and bleeding and breathing apoplectically, Michael raging in ghastly silence at the end of a mop, and a large Persian mother-cat writhing with a broken back."