ghastly

Universal Words adjective (ghastlier, ghastliest) 1 (of an event) very frightening and unpleasant, because it involves pain, death, etc: a ghastly crime / murder * She woke up in the middle of a ghastly nightmare. 2 (informal) (of an experience or a situation) very bad; unpleasant: The weather was ghastly. * It's all been a ghastly mistake. * When she mentioned redundancies, for one ghastly moment, I thought she meant me. 3 (informal) (of a person or thing) that you find unpleasant and dislike very much: her ghastly husband * This lipstick is a ghastly colour. * I look ghastly in red. 4 [notusuallybeforenoun] ill/sick or upset: I felt ghastly the next day. * Do I look as ghastly as I feel? 5 (literary) very pale in appearance, like a dead person: His face was ghastly white. * She had a ghastly pallor.