ghost Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun a mental representation of some haunting experience
spectre; shade; spook; specter; wraith.
- he looked like he had seen a ghost
- it aroused specters from his past
noun a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else
ghostwriter.
noun the visible disembodied soul of a dead person
noun a suggestion of some quality
touch; trace.
- there was a touch of sarcasm in his tone
- he detected a ghost of a smile on her face
verb move like a ghost
- The masked men ghosted across the moonlit yard
verb haunt like a ghost; pursue
haunt; obsess.
- Fear of illness haunts her
verb write for someone else
ghostwrite.
- How many books have you ghostwritten so far?

OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. gst spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.

The spirit; the soul of man. Obs.
Then gives her grieved ghost thus to lament. Spenser.
The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death; an apparition; a specter.
The mighty ghosts of our great Harrys rose. Shak.

I thought that I had died in sleep, And was a blessed ghost. Coleridge.
Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea.
Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Poe.
A false image formed in a telescope by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.
And he gave up the ghost full softly. Chaucer.

Jacob . . . yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. Gen. xlix. 33.