▪ I. ghost, n.
(gəʊst)
Forms: 1 gást, gǽst, 2–5 gast(e, 3–6 gost(e, 4–6 goost(e, 6 Sc. goast, goist, 5–6 ghoste, ghoost, (6 ghoast, 8 ghest), 5– ghost, 6– Sc. g(h)aist.
[Common WGer.: OE. gást (also gǽst) str. masc. = OFris. gâst, OS. gêst (Du. geest), OHG. (MHG., mod.Ger.) geist:—OTeut. type *gaisto-z.
Although the word is known only in the WGer. langs. (in all of which it is found with substantially identical meaning), it appears to be of pre-Teut. formation. The sense of the pre-Teut. *ghoizdo-z, if the ordinary view of its etymological relations be correct, should be ‘fury, anger’; cf. Skr. hḗ{ddotab}as neut. anger, Zend zōižda- ugly; the root *gheis-, *ghois- appears with cognate sense in ON. geisa to rage, Goth. usgaisjan to terrify (see gast v.); outside Teut. the derivatives seem to point to a primary sense ‘to wound, tear, pull to pieces’.
The OE. form gǽst is constant in the Exeter Book, and occurs 49 times in the Hatton MS. and 3 times in the Bodl. MS. of Alfred's transl. of Gregory's Pastoral Care; it is app. not known elsewhere. The occurrence of gǽst:—*gaisti- beside gást:—*gaisto- is explained by Sievers (Ags. Gram. ed. 3) as indicating that the word, though recorded only as masc., was orig. a neut. -os, -es stem: it would thus correspond formally to the Skr. word quoted above.
The spelling with gh-, so far as our material shows, appears first in Caxton, who was probably influenced by the Flemish gheest. It remained rare until the middle of the 16th c., and was not completely established before about 1590.]
1. The soul or spirit, as the principle of life; also ghost of life. Obs. exc. in phrase to give up († earlier to give, give away, yield up) the († one's) ghost: to breathe one's last, expire, die.
| a 900 in O.E. Texts 178 Se casere hio heht ᵹemartyria(n), & God wuldriende heo aᵹeaf hire gast. a 1000 Cædmon's Gen. 1281 (Gr.) He wolde..forleosan lica ᵹehwilc, þara þe lifes gast fæðmum þeahte. c 1205 Lay. 23986 Þa feol Frolle folde to grunde..his gost he bi-læfde. a 1225 Juliana 59 As ha ȝeide to godd & walde aȝeouen hire gast in to his honden. a 1300 Cursor M. 5188 His gast bigan to quiken egain. c 1305 St. Lucy 171 in E.E.P. (1862) 106 Wiþ þe laste word heo ȝaf þe gost. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 325 Alle þat glydez & gotz, & gost of lyf habbez. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 141 By lered, by lewed þat loth is to spende Þ us gone her godes be þe goste faren. 1388 Wyclif Matt. xxvii. 50 Jhesus eftsoone criede with a greet voyce and ȝaf vp the goost. c 1400 Destr. Troy 8216 He gird to the ground & the gost past. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 4833 Thow herde hym his goost commende til his fadere on the crosse. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xvi. 155, I wote I yelde my gast, so sore my hart it grefys. c 1510 More Picus Wks. 8/2 He might ere he gaue vp y⊇ goste, receiue his full draught of loue and compassion. 1574 Mirr. Mag., Albanact. lxviii, He gasped thryse, and gaue away the ghost. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia (1622) 275 But when indeede shee found his ghost was gone, then Sorrow lost the witte of utterance. 1598 R. Grenewey Tacitus' Ann. vi. x. 136 Being fallen downe and yeelding vp his ghost. 1746–7 Hervey Medit. (1818) 13 It was his last wish..He breathed it out, and gave up the ghost. 1816 J. Wilson City of Plague ii. iii. 143, I have seen for two months past some score i' the day Give up the ghost. 1879 F. T. Pollok Sport Brit. Burmah I. 127 A tiger..shot through the heart..is still capable of killing half-a-dozen men before giving up the ghost. |
| fig. 1892 Idler Sept. 220 The old mill..has tumbled down and given up the ghost. |
† 2. Used as the conventional equivalent for L.
spiritus, in contexts where the sense is
breath or
a blast.
Obs.| c 825 Vesp. Psalter x[i]. 7 Gast ysta [Vulg. spiritus procellarum]. c 1000 Ags. Ps. (Spelm.) cxxxiv. 17 Ne ne..is gast on muðe heora. a 1340 Hampole Psalter x. 7 Gast of stormes. 1340 ― Pr. Consc. 4610 Þe boke says, alswa, þat he, Thurgh þe gast of Goddes mouthe slayn sal be. ? a 1500 Chester Pl. (E.E.T.S.) ii. 95 Fowles in the ayer flying and all that ghoste hath. 1625 Gill Sacr. Philos. viii. 113 The word Ghost in English..is as much as athem, or breath; in our new Latine language, a Spirit. |
3. a. The spirit, or immaterial part of man, as distinct from the body or material part; the seat of feeling, thought, and moral action. Also, in New Testament language, the
spirit or higher moral nature of man; opposed to
flesh.
Obs. exc. in
nonce-uses.
| a 1000 Cædmon's Exod. 447 (Gr.) Folc wæs afæred; flodeᵹsa becwom gastas ᵹeomre. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxvi. 41 Witudlice se gast is hræd & þæt flæsc ys untrum. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 189 Ðe lichame winneð toȝenes þe gost. c 1220 Bestiary 550, I mene ðe stedefast in riȝte leue mid fles and gast. a 1250 Owl & Night. 1396 Sum a-rist of the flesches luste, An sum of the gostes custe. a 1300 Cursor M. 18602 Quils his licam lai vnder stan In gast es he til hell gan. a 1325 Prose Psalter l. 18 [li. 17] Trubled gost is sacrifice to God. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xi. 50 My gost gladys with luf, In god that is my hele. c 1500 Lancelot 1031 Deuoydit was his spritis and his gost. 1596 Spenser Hymn Beautie 24 Whose faire immortall beame Hath darted fyre into my feeble ghost. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 12 It will be a good step towards the knowledg of what the world ought to be to us, who are body and ghost together. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. xciii, Descend, and touch..That in this blindness of the frame, My Ghost may feel that thine is near. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. xvii. 164 The ghost, the Jeebi in him, Thought and felt as Pau-Puk-Keewis. |
b. Philos. the ghost in the machine: Gilbert Ryle's name for the mind viewed as separate from the body (see
quots.).
| 1949 G. Ryle Concept of Mind i. 15 Such in outline is the official theory. I shall often speak of it, with deliberate abusiveness, as ‘the dogma of the Ghost in the machine’. Ibid. 22 The dogma of the Ghost in the machine..maintains that there exist both bodies and minds; that there are mechanical causes of corporeal movements and mental causes of corporeal movements. 1960 J. O. Urmson Conc. Encycl. Western Philos. 350/1 We are inclined to construe the concept of mind as of an extra object situated in the body and controlling it by a set of unwitnessable activities; this is what he [sc. Ryle] calls the dogma of the ghost (the mind) in the machine (the body). Ryle regards this picture as totally misleading. 1961 Mind LXX. 103 Certainly he [sc. Teilhard de Chardin] imports a ghost, the entelechy or élan vital of an earlier terminology, into the Mendelian machine. 1967 Koestler (title) The ghost in the machine. |
† 4. A person.
Cf. the similar use of
soul,
spirit.
| a 1000 Guthlac 690 in Exeter Bk., Þæt se leofesta gæst ᵹeᵹearwad in godes wære on ᵹefean ferde. c 1305 Pol. Songs (Camden) 70 The Kyng..Brohte from Alemayne mony sori gost to store Wyndesore. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 253 Aigolandus was a lewed goost and lewed⁓liche i-meved as þe devel hym tauȝte. 1399 Langl. Rich. Redeles i. 25 Graceles gostis gylours of hem-self..sawe no manere siȝth saff solas and ese. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. viii. 26 No knight so rude, I weene, As to doen outrage to a sleeping ghost. |
† 5. a. An incorporeal being; a spirit.
local ghost = L.
genius loci.
Obs.| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 2750 Þe clerkes sede..Þat þer beþ in þe eyr an hey, ver fram þe grounde, As a maner gostes..Þat men clupeþ eluene. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. lxxxvi, That affable familiar ghost Which nightly gulls him with intelligence. 1618 Bolton Florus i. xiii. (1636) 39 When they beheld the purple-cloathed Senatours sitting in their chayres of state, they worshipt them at first as gods or locall ghosts. |
† b. A good spirit, an angel.
Obs.| c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iii. xiv. [xix.] (1890) 214 Heo..eft mid þæm engelicum gastum to heofonum hwurfen. a 1000 Cædmon's Gen. 2430 (Gr.) Aras þa metodes þeow gastum toᵹeanes. a 1240 Sawles Warde in Cott. Hom. 261 Ich biseh to þe engles..iblescede gastes þe beoð a biuore godd. c 1485 Digby Myst. iii. 601, I am þe gost of goodnesse þat so wold ȝe gydde. |
† c. An evil spirit.
the loath ghost,
foul ghost,
wicked ghost: the Devil.
Obs.| a 1000 Christ & Satan (Gr.-Wülk.) 126 Se wereᵹa gast. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xii. 43 Se unclæna gast utfærþ fram menn. c 1200 Ormin 8064 Herode king maȝȝ swiþe wel Þe laþe gast bitacnenn. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 87 Swiche hertes fondeð þe fule gost deies and nihtes. a 1300 Cursor M. 170 How iesus quen he long had fast Was fondid wit þe wik gast. a 1350 Life Jesu (Horstm.) 232 Þou luþere gost and doumb..def and vn milde, Ich hote þe þat þov wende hasteliche fram þe childe. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 431 May no grysly gost glyde þere it shadweth. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. (Thornton) 163 Nowe I am a grisely gaste, and grymly graue With Lucefere. 1529 More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1178/1 Oure wrestlynge is..against the spiritual wicked gostes of the ayre. |
6. Formerly used in the sense of
spirit (of God). Now only in
Holy Ghost, the usual designation of the Third Person of the Trinity in liturgical and dogmatic language.
‘Thy Ghost’ for ‘Thy Holy Ghost’ in
quot. 1871 is merely a nonce-use.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter cxxxviii[i]. 7 Hwider gongu ic from gaste ðinum. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. John xiv. 26 Se haliᵹa frofre gast. c 1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia VIII. 310 On þam dæᵹe godes gast com to mancynne. a 1300 Cursor M. 26041 He has couerd þe seuen Giftes o þe gast of heuen, Þe quilk he had al forwit tint. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1598 A haþel..Þat hatz þe gostes of god þat gyes alle soþes. 1340 Ayenb. 53 Þe zixte [libbeþ] be þe goste and be þe loue of god. c 1386 Chaucer Prioress' T. 18 O mooder mayde!..That rauysedest doun fro the deitee, Thurgh thyn humblesse, the goost þat in thalighte. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xv. 68 Ihesu Criste was þe worde and þe gaste of Godd. c 1440 York Myst. xxi. 14 He schall giffe baptyme more entire in fire and gaste. c 1550 Cheke Mark i. 10 He saw y⊇ heavens departed, and y⊇ ghoost to come down lijk a doov on him. 1552 Latimer Fruitf. Serm. (1584) 330 The onely remedy, is to call vpon God to endue thee with the Holy Ghost..Call I say vppon almighty God for this Ghost [1607 ed. helpe]. 1647 H. More Song of Soul i. ii. xci, God's Spirit is no private empty shade But that great Ghost that fills both earth and sky. 1871 G. Macdonald Sonn. conc. Jesus iv, 'Tis man himself, the temple of thy Ghost. |
† 7. The soul of a deceased person, spoken of as inhabiting the unseen world. In later use only
= manes; sometimes
pl. Obs.| a 800 in O.E. Texts 149 To ymbhycggannae..huaet his gastae..aefter deothdaege doemid uueorth[a]e. c 835 Charter ibid. 448 Þonne foe se hlaford to & ða hiᵹan æt kristes cirican, & hit minum gaste nytt ᵹedoen. c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 169 Witeð ȝie awariede gostes in to eche fur. c 1290 St. Brandan 525 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 234 Heo i-seiȝe on-ouewarde..A wrechche gost, naked and bar. a 1300 Cursor M. 18603 His bodi here, his gast was þar, His goddhede wanted noþer-quar. 1606 G. W[oodcocke] tr. Justin's Hist. 126 He did sacrifice to his Wiues Ghost. 1654 R. Codrington tr. Justin's Hist. 470 He took Gryphina, the wife of Gryphus, prisoner, who killed her sister, and by her death did parentate to the Ghosts of his wife. a 1674 Clarendon Hist. Reb. xi. §124 To take full vengeance for the loss of Rainsborough, to whose Ghost he design'd an ample sacrifice. |
8. a. The soul of a deceased person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form, or otherwise manifesting its presence, to the living. (Now the prevailing sense.)
| c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 1295 Dido, This night my fadres gost Hath in my sleep so sore me tormented. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas vi. xi. (1554) 157 a, Crye of goostes in cauernes and kaues. 1513 Douglas æneis vi. xi. 35 Fadir, thi drery gost Sa oft apperand, maid me seik this cost. a 1550 Christis Kirke Gr. xviii, He grainit lyk ony gaist. 1599 Massinger, etc. Old Law iv. i. (1656) H 1 b, I'le bury some money before I die, that my ghost May hant thee after⁓ward. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. v. 126 There needs no Ghost my Lord, come from the Graue, to tell vs this. 1691 Norris Pract. Disc. 180 We should be no more concerned with the things of this World, than a Ghost is, that only comes to do a Message of Providence. 1742 Collins Odes, Fear 60 Ghosts, as cottage-maids believe, Their pebbled beds permitted leave. 1794 Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xxii, Now you would persuade me you have seen a ghost. 1838–9 Hallam Hist. Lit. IV. iv. iv. §21. 162 The canonists and casuists have vanished like ghosts at the first daylight. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 488 Between five and six weeks..the widow remains in the hut, armed with a good stout stick, as a precaution against the ghost of her husband. |
| transf. and fig. 1764 Foote Patron iii. Wks. 1799 I. 358 If I go to the bar, the ghost of this curs'd comedy will follow, and haunt me in Westminster-hall. 1819 G. Peacock Flux. & Diff. Calc. 20 To represent a fluxion as the limit of the increment..is to reduce it..in the language of Berkly, to the ghost of a departed entity. 1849 Thackeray Pendennis xli, The ghost of the dead feeling came back as he mused. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 522 In front of us a spear's ghost used to fly across the path about that time in the afternoon. |
b. Phrases.
to lay a ghost: to cause it to cease appearing.
to raise a ghost: to cause it to appear. Both also
fig. the ghost walks (
Theat. slang): there is money in the treasury, the salaries are forthcoming.
| 1716, etc. [see lay v.1 3 b]. 1826 [see raise v.1 21 a]. 1833 R. Dyer 9 Yrs. of Actor's Life 53 If I played with applause, it was a matter of indifference whether ‘the ghost’ walked on Saturday or not. 1853 Househ. Words 24 Sep. 77/1 When no salaries are forthcoming on Saturday the ‘ghost doesn't walk’. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. i, Where the last ghost was laid by the parson. 1883 Referee 24 June 3/2 An Actor's Benevolent Fund box placed on the treasurer's desk every day when the ghost walks would get many an odd shilling or six⁓pence put into it. 1884 tr. Lotze's Metaph. iii. 63 We are fighting here against ghosts raised by ourselves. 1889 J. C. Coleman in Barrere & Leland Slang 405 Instead of enquiring whether the treasury is open, they generally say—‘Has the ghost walked?’ |
c. An apparition; a spectre.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 933 ‘Hateful divorce of love’—thus chides she Death—‘Grim-grinning ghost, earth's worm.’ 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxiv. 208 A Ghost, or other Idol or Phantasme of the Imagination. 1658 Manton Exp. Jude 16 We are not to..fight with ghosts and antiquated errors, but to oppose with all earnestness the growing evils of the world. 1727 De Foe Hist. Appar. v. (1840) 50 An apparition is vulgarly called by us a ghost. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxxix. 344 They won't come there to inquire after us. If they do, I'll play ghost for them. |
† 9. A corpse.
Obs. (
Cf. L.
mānes.)
| 1567 Fenton Trag. Disc. B b j, Kissyng every parte of his senceles ghoste. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 161 Oft haue I seene a timely-parted Ghost, Of ashy semblance, meager, pale, and bloodlesse. |
10. In allusion to the pale, shadowy and unsubstantial appearance attributed to ghosts.
a. Applied to a person in a state of extreme emaciation; ‘a shadow of his former self’.
| 1590 Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons i. *** iv, Great numbers of miserable and pitiful ghosts, or rather shadowes of men. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 218 By their unmerciful bleeding him; insomuch that he seemed to have little more left than would suffice to make him a walking Ghost. |
b. A shadowy outline or semblance, an unsubstantial image (of something); hence, a slight trace or vestige,
esp. in phrase
(not) the ghost of a chance.
Cf. shadow.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 40 That Berosus which we now have, is not so much as the ghost, or carkasse..of that famous Chaldean Author. 1731 A. Hill Adv. Poets Ep. 13 Things, without Wit, or Meaning, and which are not so much, as the Ghosts of good Poetry. 1818 Moore Fudge Fam. Paris iii. 43 There, Dick, what a breakfast!—oh, not like your ghost Of a breakfast in England. a 1845 Hood Workhouse Clock iii, The Sempstress, lean, and weary, and wan, With only the ghosts of garments on. 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. (1874) I. x. 121 The arch line is the ghost or skeleton of the arch. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown ii. v, Williams hadn't the ghost of a chance with Tom at wrestling. 1869 Mayne Reid's Mag. June 509 But to secure him, this whale did not give us the ghost of a chance. 1887 Rider Haggard Jess. viii, Her breath rested for a second on his cheek like the ghost of a kiss. |
c. An impression of a signature made by folding the paper over while the ink is still wet.
| 1929 Sotheby's Catal. 4–7 Nov. 82 On the back of one ‘ghost’ there is a note in the Author's hand. |
11. Optics, etc.
† a. A name for Ramsden's eye-piece for the microscope, which is so constructed that the image formed by the objective lies below instead of above the field-glass.
Obs.| 1793 Wollaston in Phil. Trans. LXXXIII. 139, I approve much of Mr. Ramsden's ghost, as it is called, where it can be used with safety. |
b. A bright spot or secondary image appearing in the field of a telescope, produced by some defect, temporary or permanent, in one of the lenses of the eye-piece.
| 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Ghost, a false image in the lens of an instrument. 1870 Eng. Mech. 7 Jan. 397/3 What opticians call ‘a ghost’, or internal reflection from the lenses of the eye-piece. |
c. Photogr. = flare,
n.1 3.
| 1864 J. Towler Silver Sunbeam xlviii. (1870) 451 You will perceive one, two, three, etc., illuminated circles move across the field of vision over the picture—these are ghosts. 1868 [see flare n.1 3]. |
d. Spectroscopy. A spurious spectral line produced by periodic errors in a diffraction grating.
| 1879 C. S. Peirce in Amer. Jrnl. Math. II. 330 (heading) On the ghosts in Rutherford's diffraction-grating. Ibid. 338 The positions of some of these ‘ghosts’, or repetitions of the principal spectrum, have been carefully measured. 1882 Nature XXVII. 95 Professor Rowland's plates..were free from ‘ghosts’ caused by periodicity in the ruling. 1963 R. W. Ditchburn Light (ed. 2) vi. 188 Every fifth line [of a diffraction grating] slightly displaced has the effect of superposing a ‘grating’ of spacing five times the true spacing and gives a ‘ghost’ whose apparent wavelength is λ/5. |
e. Biol. A cell wall or cell membrane,
esp. of a red blood corpuscle, that has lost its protoplasmic contents; also, in extended use, a bacteriophage with an empty ‘head’.
| 1890 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. LVII. 499 The parenchymatous tissue of the endosperm portions..is completely disintegrated, the cell-walls either entirely disappearing or remaining in a much swollen and altered form as mere ‘ghosts’. 1902 Jrnl. Exper. Med. VI. 267 Whether this increase of permeability persists when the corpuscles have been reduced to ghosts by the escape of hæmoglobin I am unable to say. 1951 Jrnl. Bacteriol. LXI. 753 The ghosts have a host range specificity similar to that of the virus from which they were derived. [Note] The word ‘ghost’ has been used because of its obvious relationship to the red cell ghost produced in a somewhat similar manner. It consists of the deflated head and the tail. 1959 Garen & Kozloff in Burnet & Stanley Viruses II. 207 Ghosts of a T1..and a staphylococcal phage have been seen in electron micrographs. 1970 Nature 31 Oct. 415/1 At least 50 per cent of the protein in red cell ghosts is present in this form. |
f. Metallurgy. A faint band on the surface of steel due to the segregation of certain of its constituents.
| 1905 Trans. Inst. Naval Archit. XLVII. ii. 369 All [these micrographs], however, showed lines which are technically known as ‘ghosts’, namely lines of metal high in sulphur and phosphorus. Ibid. 380 The well⁓marked ‘ghosts’ in the micro-structure. 1945 Greaves & Wrighton Pract. Microsc. Metallogr. x. 173 A ghost is due to local segregation of impurities during the solidification of the ingot. |
g. Television. A displaced repeated image on a television screen caused by a duplicate signal travelling by a longer path.
| 1927 Bell Syst. Techn. Jrnl. VI. 646 When marked fading occurred, the normally clear [television] reproduction was accompanied by ‘ghosts’ or additional images which faded in and out. 1929 Sheldon & Grisewood Television xiii. 143 The ‘ghosts’ represented energy which had traveled from the transmitter upward to the Heaviside..whence it was reflected to the receiver. 1967 Guardian 24 June 1/3 After a rain storm of static and a flutter of television ‘ghosts’ we were able to recognise LBJ. |
h. Cinemat. (See
quots.)
| 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 375/2 Ghost, vertical streaks on high-lights in a projected picture, arising from incorrect phasing of the rotary shutter with respect to the moving film. 1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 100/1 In film projection, a ghost is an extension above or below the main images on the screen and is caused by faulty synchronization between the shutter and intermittent mechanisms of the projector. |
i. A spurious signal on a radar screen that does not correspond to a target at the indicated location.
| 1945 Amer. Speech XX. 309/2 Ghost, echoes which do not follow normal characteristics and for which definite targets cannot be found. 1961 D. J. Povejsil et al. Airborne Radar vi. 331 In a two-PRF system, two targets would yield four possible range values: two correct ranges and two ‘ghosts’. 1969 Barton & Ward Handbk. Radar Measurement i. 12 Common examples are ambiguities in range and Doppler measurements..and the ghosts produced by scanning with two fan beams which are oriented at right angles to each other. |
12. Sc. ‘A piece of dead coal, that instead of burning appears in the fire as a white lump’ (
Jam.).
| 1824 S. E. Ferrier Inher. xvii, Mr. R. sat by the side of the expiring fire, seemingly contemplating the gaists and cinders which lay scattered over the hearth. |
13. One who secretly does artistic or literary work for another person, the latter taking the credit.
| 1884 Pall Mall G. 23 June 8/2 Plaintiff said he had heard of the expression ‘A sculptor's ghost’..a few months ago, and understood it to mean that a person who was supposed to do a work did not do it. 1889 Ibid. 12 Jan. 6/1 The only persons who make no secrecy about their ghosts are American millionaires, one of whom in..advertising once for a private secretary stated that the chief duties of the post would be to issue all his invitations and to write all his speeches. 1896 Daily News 17 Feb. 6/3 Van Dyck was probably one of his master's ‘ghosts’. |
14. attrib. and
Comb. (Sense 8 only.)
a. simple
attrib., as
ghost-apparition,
ghost-appurtenance,
ghost-ballad,
ghost-haunt,
ghost-hero,
ghost-hour,
ghost-house,
ghost-land (also
attrib.),
ghost-lore,
ghost-story (also
attrib.),
ghost-world.
b. objective, as
ghost-fear,
ghost-hunter,
ghost-lover,
ghost-monger,
ghost-seer,
ghost-service,
ghost-worship;
ghost-seeing vbl. n. and
ppl. adj.;
ghost-compelling,
ghost-fearing ppl. adjs. c. instrumental, as
ghost-filled,
ghost-haunted,
ghost-poisoned,
ghost-ridden,
ghost-trod ppl. adjs. d. similative, as
ghost-dim,
ghost-white adjs.;
ghost-wise adv.| 1829 Carlyle Misc. (1857) I. 276 Murders, duels, *ghost-apparitions. |
| Ibid. 274 Other *ghost-appurtenances. |
| 1830 Scott Demonol. x. 360 Mat Lewis published it with a *ghost ballad which he adjusted on the same theme. |
| 1742 Francis Horace's Odes i. xxiv. 27 The *Ghost-compelling God..will not..unbar the Gates of Death. |
| 1850 Mrs. Browning Poems II. 298 What angel, but would seem To sensual eyes, *Ghost-dim? |
| 1892 Proc. Amer. Miss. Assoc. 62 Superstition..in the form of *ghost-fears..pervades every community of..the Afro-Americans in the South. |
| 1840 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 130 Your modern Indian..is no *ghost-fearing wretch. |
| 1627 May tr. Lucan ix. 42 From thence they saile away To *ghost-fill'd Tænarus. |
| 1845 G. Murray Islaford 179 The *ghost⁓haunt of guilt. |
| 1884 Littell's Living Age CLXI. 91 He might easily imagine it to be one of those weird, grey, *ghost-haunted castles. |
| 1838 Carlyle Misc. (1857) IV. 142 An impersonal *ghost-hero. |
| a 1847 Eliza Cook Old Man's Marvel v, The orb that maketh the *ghost-hour fair. |
| 1844 Lady G. C. Fullerton Ellen Middleton (1884) 56 The ruins of the old hall, which my maid used to call the ‘*ghost-house’. |
| 1894 Lang Cock Lane, etc. 234 Wodrow, a great *ghost-hunter. |
| 1853 Hawthorne Eng. Note-bks. (1883) I. 468 *Ghostland lies beyond the jurisdiction of veracity. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 555 The rain is too thick for one to see two yards in any direction, and we seem to be in a ghost-land forest. |
| 1893 H. R. Haweis in Fortn. Rev. Jan. 120 Literature is deeply dyed with *ghost⁓lore. |
| 1827 Hare Guesses Ser. i. (1873) 184 This should be borne in mind by political and philosophical *ghostseers, *ghostlovers, and *ghostmongers. |
| 1880 G. Meredith Trag. Com. (1881) 67 Hamlet was poisoned—*ghost-poisoned. |
| 1897 Edin. Rev. Apr. 451 The one was *ghost-ridden, the other fancy free. |
| 1886 M. Gray Silence Dean Maitland I. x. 272 Dr. Everard, what prescriptions have you for young ladies who take to *ghost-seeing? |
| 1894 Westm. Gaz. 5 Sept. 2/1 The great *ghost-seeing age is between twenty and twenty-nine. |
| 1817 Scott Harold iv. vii, With a *ghost-seer's look when the ghost disappears. 1862 J. Grant Capt. of Guard x, Lord abbot, talk to this old ghostseer, and assure him that there can be no such thing in nature as the spectre of a living man. |
| 1819 Byron Juan i. cxxxv. (MS. reading), Supper, punch, *ghost⁓stories, and such chat. 1897 Westm. Gaz. 6 July 2/3 The visitor awoke with the true ghost story ‘feeling of chilliness’ and an impression that there was ‘something’ in the room. |
| 1870 Morris Earthly Par. III. iv. 225 Over the empty *ghost-trod way. |
| 1893 Kipling Seven Seas (1896) 61 A sloop-of-war, *ghost-white and very near. 1954 L. MacNeice Autumn Sequel iii. 27 Two great swans, ghost-white. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 16 May 4/5 He weeps, *ghost-wise, at the auctioneer's bills in his bedroom. 1924 Public Opinion 11 July 48/3 Your nearness gathers ghostwise down the room. |
| a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 121 Mine inner sense upwakes to see The *ghost world's clear and wondrous deep. |
| 1891 Month LXXIII. 77 The attention that has been given of late years to Animism, or *ghost⁓worship. |
e. Special comb., as
ghost-bird (
U.S. local), ‘the American yellow-breasted chat (
Icteria virens)’ (Funk);
ghost-candle, one of a number of candles kept burning round a corpse to scare away ghosts;
ghost-coal Sc. = sense 12;
ghost-dance, a fanatical observance among the North-American Indians; hence
ghost-dancer;
ghost-demon, a human spirit that has become a demon (see
demon1 1), and is worshipped as such;
ghost-family, the family of a ghost-marriage;
ghost-form = ghost-word;
ghost-god = ghost-demon;
ghost-gum Austral., a species of
Eucalyptus (
cf. white-gum2);
ghost image, applied to various kinds of spurious or false images (see
quots. and sense 11);
ghost-light, ?
= corpse-candle 2;
ghost line = sense 11 f;
ghost-marriage (see
quots.);
ghost-moth, a nocturnal moth (
Hepialus humuli);
ghost-name (see
ghost-word);
ghost-plant, the tumble-weed (
Amarantus albus);
ghost-raiser, one who ‘raises a ghost’ (see 8 b);
ghost-soul, in folk-lore, a double or apparition of a person;
ghost-swift = ghost-moth;
ghost town orig. U.S., a town partially or completely devoid of its inhabitants;
ghost train, (
a) (see
quot. 1884); (
b) a train of cars at a fun fair that travels through dark tunnels in which there are ghost-like effects; (
c) a train run during the night to keep the track clear in periods of heavy snowfall or severe frost;
ghost-word (see
quot. 1886);
ghost writer orig. U.S., a hack writer who does work for which another person takes the credit (
cf. sense 13); hence
ghost-write v. trans. and intr. = ghost v. 4;
ghost-writing vbl. n.;
ghost-written ppl. adj.| 1885 E. Peacock in Academy 26 Sept. 204/2 So we lighted the *ghost-candles round her bed. |
| 1824 Mactaggart Gallovid. Dict., *Gaistcoal, a coal that when it is burned becomes white. |
| 1890 Daily News 25 Nov. 6/3 All the western tribes..are dancing the *Ghost Dance, and looking forward to the coming of the Great Leader. |
| 1890 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 29 Nov. 2/3 The sudden metamorphosis of a great number of the *ghost dancers..into cattle-stealers. |
| 1677 Gale Crt. Gentiles iii. 105 It was their custome to build Shrines or Temples at such places where the bodies or ashes of their *Ghost-Demons lay entombed. 1871 Tylor Prim. Cult. II. 103 Ancient and modern European tales of baleful ghost-demons. |
| 1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Kinship & Marriage among Nuer iii. 110 The family that develops out of a ghost-marriage may be called a *ghost-family in acknowledgement of the ghostly status of the pater of the children. It consists of a ghost, his wife, his children born in the union of marriage, and the kinsman who begat these children and acts as father to them. |
| 1933 Bloomfield Lang. xxvii. 487 Chaucer's phrase in derring do that longeth to a knight ‘in daring to do what is proper for a knight’, was misunderstood by Spenser, who took derring-do to be a compound meaning ‘brave actions’ and succeeded in introducing this *ghost-form into our elevated language. |
| a 1638 Mede Wks. i. xliii. (1672) 242 In Religious graves and sepulchres..they hoped to find their *Ghost-gods. |
| 1954 Y. Hillman in Coast to Coast 45 It was a good pelt and as white as a *ghost gum. 1954 G. Dutton Ibid. 152 The chalky ghost-gums. 1959 Listener 7 May 785/1 On the slopes, and in the valleys too, grow ghost-gums—a species of eucalyptus with drooping, dark-green leaves and smooth sculpted trunks of an exquisite pallor. |
| 1902 Daily Chron. 19 June 4/4 ‘The {oqq}Grubs{cqq} Collimating Telescope Gun Sight’, an optical contrivance arranged so that a vertical or *ghost image is made to appear as if projected upon the object aimed at. 1904 J. McIntosh Photogr. Ref. Bk. (ed. 2) ii. 43 The ghost image is a reflection of the bright object in front of the camera reflected from the back lens upon the front lens, and finally transmitted to the plate. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 375/2 Ghost image, the image arising from a mirror when the rays have experienced reflection within the glass between the surface and the silvering. 1953 L. J. Wheeler Princ. Cinematography vi. 185 If the shutter is out of phase with the pull-down a ‘ghost image’ will be seen on the screen. |
| 1897 Folk-Lore Sept. 215 A. F. says that he himself saw what they call a *ghost-light. |
| 1926 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXIII. 109 When the ascending segregates are impeded by the growing crystals, they tend to elongate and form typical stringlike formations of segregate known as ‘*ghost lines’. |
| 1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Kinship & Marriage among Nuer iii. 109 A very common feature of Nuer social life is a union I have called *ghost-marriage. If a man dies without legal male heirs, a kinsman of his..ought to take a wife to his name. 1964 Gould & Kolb Dict. Soc. Sci. 388/1 Ghost Marriage, the custom of marrying a girl to the name of a dead brother or other relative. |
| 1831 Loudon Encycl. Agric. (ed. 2) 1116 The *ghost moth (Hepialus humuli, F.) deposits its eggs near the roots of the hop plant, upon which the larva or caterpillar feeds, some⁓times doing them considerable injury. |
| 1896 Daily News 3 Jan. 5/2 Grampians is a *ghost-name, derived from a mis⁓reading of Tacitus's Mons Graupius. |
| 1887 Science IX. 32/2 Dr. Newberry has told us that it [Amarantus albus] is also known as the ‘*ghost-plant’, in allusion to the same habit, bunches flitting along by night producing a peculiarly weird appearance. |
| 1886 J. K. Jerome Idle Thoughts 166 Memory is a rare *ghost raiser. 1908 Daily Chron. 30 June 3/1 An efficient new ghost-raiser presents himself. |
| 1871 E. B. Tylor Prim. Cult. I. 451 The notion of a *ghost-soul animating man while in the body. 1924 W. B. Selbie Psychol. Relig. 29 As formulated by Professor Tylor this theory of a quasi-material ghost-soul is to be regarded as the typical and almost universal source of religious ideas and practices. |
| 1869 E. Newman Brit. Moths 20 The *Ghost Swift (Male) (Hepialus humuli)..So called from the white colour of the male. |
| [1875 Cincinnati Enquirer 2 July 5/1 The deserted mining towns, like the ghosts of their departed prosperity.] 1931 G. F. Willison Here they dug Gold 71 Today all lie *ghost towns smelling of the long slow processes of ruin and decay. 1944 F. Clune Red Heart 6 Then Broken Hill will be a Ghost Town..like White Cliffs which once boomed on opals. 1952 H. Innes Campbell's Kingdom i. iii. 51 Come Lucky was a rotten clutter of empty shacks. It was my first sight of a ghost town. 1967 Times 18 July 1/3 Qantara, after the Middle East war, has been turned into a ghost town, as not more than 1,000 of its 8,000 people remain. |
| 1884 Q. Rev. July 94 On some lines, freight trains are frequently run of which no account is given, the profits going to the officials and the employés. They are technically known as ‘*ghost trains’. [1925 A. Ridley (title of play) The Ghost Train.] 1936 Auden & Isherwood Ascent of F6 ii. iii. 100 The *Ghost Train and the switchback did not always disappoint. 1958 A. Sillitoe Sat. Night xi. 157 Winnie clamoured for the Ghost Train. 1968 Daily Express 10 Jan. 1 (headline) Ghost trains fight big freeze. |
| 1886 Skeat in Trans. Philol. Soc. (1885–7) ii. 350–1 Report upon ‘*Ghost-words’, or Words which have no real Existence..We should jealously guard against all chances of giving any undeserved record of words which had never any real existence, being mere coinages due to the blunders of printers or scribes, or to the perfervid imaginations of ignorant or blundering editors. 1888 ― in N. & Q. 7th Ser. V. 504/1 The word meant is estures, bad spelling of estres; and eftures is a ghost-word. |
| 1927 Editor & Publisher 18 June 9/1 When he isn't *ghost-writing [he] is a member of the European staff of the New York Times. 1932 New Republic 10 Feb. 347 The autobiographical boloney ghost-written by Samuel Crowther for Ford. 1938 J. Hilton To you, Mr. Chips i. 37 The kind..whose autobiography, written or ghost-written, exudes the main idea that ‘school made him what he was’. 1951 Wodehouse Old Reliable iii. 40 I'm ghostwriting the story of her life. 1956 Auden Making, Knowing & Judging 9 And end up by ghost-writing poems for him which he was too busy to start or finish. |
| 1927 Lit. Digest 30 July 27 A *ghost-writer may do all the work. 1928 J. P. McEvoy Show Girl 77, I told you I was one of them there ghost writers doing my bit for belle lettres. 1964 G. A. Williamson World of Josephus xvii. 261 Ghost writers are always with us. |
| 1927 Editor & Publisher 18 June 9/1 *Ghost-writing originated very naturally in the field of sports. 1964 M. McLuhan Understanding Media ii. xxi. 212 Modern ghost-writing, teletype, and wire services create an insubstantial world of ‘pseudo-events’. |
Hence
ˈghostdom, the region or domain of ghosts;
ˈghostified ppl. a. [see
-fy], having the aspect of being haunted by ghosts;
ˈghostite [
-ite], one who believes in ghosts;
ˈghostlet [
-let], a little ghost.
| 1855 Smedley H. Coverdale v. 29 A dark archway..which..looked jolly queer and ghostified. 1882 Pall Mall G. 24 Oct. 2 Here, sir, is an offer for the ghostites. 1890 Nature 20 Feb. 376 Their tiny fleets of medusa-buds, watery ghost-lets, flitting away. 1892 Pall Mall G. 23 July 3/1 More Glimpses of Ghostdom. 1893 J. Skinner Autobiog. Metaphysician xxix. 144 His belief in and familiarity with supernatural appearances, particularly imps and ghostlets. |
▸
ghost payroller n. U.S. colloq. (chiefly
depreciative) a person receiving a salary for a job that exists only nominally, or that requires little or no work, and which has been awarded through patronage, nepotism, or to ensure political allegiance.
| 1957 Tri City Herald (Washington) 7 May 9/3 There were a number of *ghost payrollers in the office of [the] State Auditor. 1999 J. L. Merriner Mr. Chairman 42 Traditionally, this was a no-show, ‘ghost payroller’ patronage job. |
▪ II. ghost, v. (
gəʊst)
[f. prec. n.] † 1. intr. a. To give up the ghost, expire.
| a 1586 Sidney (J.), Euryalus taking leave of Lucretia, precipitated her into such a love-fit, that within a few hours she ghosted. 1689 G. Harvey Curing Dis. by Expect. vii. 51 A day or two after..the Lad having been miserably tortured, Ghosted. |
2. a. trans. To haunt as an apparition.
| 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. vi. 13 Iulius Cæsar Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. Democr. to Rdr. 19 Aske not with him in the Poet..what madnesse ghostes this old man, but what madnesse ghostes vs all? 1879 H. N. Hudson Hamlet 10 The being thus ghosted was held to be no such trifling matter as we are apt to consider it. |
b. To scare with pretended apparitions.
| 1813 E. S. Barrett Heroine (1815) III. 196 ‘Can he be ghosting her all this time?’ said Betterton. [Cf. quot. under ghosting vbl. n.] |
3. a. intr. To flit about, prowl as a ghost. Also
to ghost it.
to ghost away: to steal away like a ghost.
| 1833 Fraser's Mag. VIII. 577 Doomed to wither..and, after ghosting it about for an hour..be buried. 1880 Antrim & Down Gloss., Ghost, to haunt a person or place for the purpose of importuning for money or anything else. |
b. Of a sailing vessel: to make relatively good progress when there is very little wind.
| 1891 Field 26 Dec. 967/2 On the second day..the Dragon again ghosted away from the trio. 1921 Glasgow Herald 6 July 8 The Lady Anne's remarkable facility for what is known as ghosting was undoubtedly the means of falsifying all forecasts of the issues. 1926 D. Byrne Brother Saul xvii. 450 Every inch of sail was set as they ghosted along. 1954 W. G. Arnott Orwell Estuary i. 1 We ghosted into the harbour in the gloom of an autumn evening. 1962 A. G. Course Dict. Naut. Terms 87 The British clippers, such as the Cutty Sark, were the best ever at ghosting. 1971 E. Fenwick Impeccable People iv. 24 They took an evening sail down the coast..and came ghosting back near shore in the quiet dark. |
4. trans. and intr. To write (something) as a ghost-writer; to act as a ‘ghost’ (see
ghost n. 13).
| 1922 Glasgow Herald 11 Oct. 3 ‘A certain general’ for whom he did some ‘ghosting’. 1925 T. E. Lawrence Let. 21 Apr. (1938) 474 A very distinguished person's wife once asked me if I would care to edit or ‘ghost’, her husband's diary. 1932 Times Lit. Suppl. 1 Sept. 609/1 The articles which he ‘ghosted’ for Jerry Turnbull, a millionaire with literary ambitions. 1954 Koestler Invis. Writing 338, I enjoyed fussing over her, ghosting her dispatches. 1959 M. Cumberland Murmurs in Rue Morgue viii. 57 A man of talent who has failed—to the point where he is ready to ghost for a man like Galotin. |
Hence
ˈghosted ppl. a., that has become a ghost, deceased, departed;
ˈghosting,
vbl. n.| 1813 E. S. Barrett Heroine (1815) III. 183 The Baron Hildebrand..had adopted the ghosting system (so common in romances) to frighten me into his schemes. 1834 Aird Churchyard Eclogue 149 Rise, my ghosted love, and testify Against the harsh decree that such must die. |