▪ I. ˈgashly, a. Obs. exc. dial.
[? Altered form of ghastly: cf. gashful.]
Ghastly, horrid.
| 1633 P. Fletcher Purple Isl. vii. xxxi, Next Pharmacus, of gashly wilde aspect; Whom hell with seeming fear, and fiends obey. 1650 Fuller Pisgah iv. vii. 131 Their warm and wanton embraces of living bodies, ill agreed with their offerings Diis manibus, to gashly Ghosts. 1675 Otway Alcib. 54 Now there grim death his gashly Revels keeps. 1765 Sterne Tr. Shandy viii. xi, By all that is hirsute and gashly! I cry. 1880 Mrs. Parr Adam & Eve xiii. (1881) 65 See 'em stare and then give a gashly look at mother. |
b. in adverbial use.
| 1893 Wiltsh. Gloss., s.v. Ghastly, ‘Thick hedge wur gashly high, but it be ter'ble improved now.’ 1897 C. Lee in Leisure Ho. Dec. 98/1 Her strange calm face, her gashly coloured tresses, her noiseless movements about the room. |
Hence ˈgashliness, ghastliness, dismalness.
| 1848 Dickens Dombey viii, The general dulness (gashliness was Mrs. Wickam's strong expression) of her present life. |
▪ II. ˈgashly, adv. Sc.
[f. gash a.2 + -ly2.]
Fluently, loquaciously.
| a 1774 Fergusson A Drink Eclogue Poems (1845) 50 And courtiers aft gaed greinin for my smack, To gar them bauldly glower and gashly crack. |