Ghast·ly a. [Compar. Ghastlier superl. Ghastliest.]
  1. Like a ghost in appearance; deathlike; pale; pallid; dismal.
     Each turned his face with a ghastly pang.   --Coleridge.
     His face was so ghastly that it could scarcely be recognized.   --Macaulay.
  2. Horrible; shocking; dreadful; hideous.
     Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail.   --Milton.
  ghastly
       adj 1: shockingly repellent; inspiring horror; "ghastly wounds";
              "the grim aftermath of the bombing"; "the grim task of
              burying the victims"; "a grisly murder"; "gruesome
              evidence of human sacrifice"; "macabre tales of war
              and plague in the Middle ages"; "macabre tortures
              conceived by madmen" [syn: grim, grisly, gruesome,
               macabre]
       2: gruesomely indicative of death or the dead; "a charnel smell
          came from the chest filled with dead men's bones";
          "ghastly shrieks"; "the sepulchral darkness of the
          catacombs" [syn: charnel, sepulchral]
       [also: ghastliest, ghastlier]