ghost

noun

soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living (for ghosts from a work of fiction see Q30061299)

L23370 on Wikidata ↗

verb

move like a ghost
haunt or pursue
write for someone else (ghost write)

L23371 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ɡəʊst/ / /ɡoʊst/ / /ɡɐʉst/

adj

Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst, gǣst (“breath, spirit, soul, ghost”) (compare modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, from *ǵʰéysd- (“anger, agitation”). The h in the spelling appears in the Prologue to William Caxton’s Royal Book, printed in 1484, in a reference to the “Holy Ghoost”. It was likely influenced by Middle Dutch gheest, a common variant of geest. Both Caxton and his assistant Wynkyn de Worde had connections to the Low Countries. Doublet of geist. The adjective and verb are derived from the noun. The verb gained prominence in the 2010s. cognates * Danish gast (“ghost”), gejst (“enthusiasm”) * Dutch geest (“ghost, spirit”) * German Geist (“ghost, spirit”) * Luxembourgish Geescht (“ghost, spirit, spectre, phantom”) * Saterland Frisian Gäist, Jeest (“ghost, spirit”) * Scots gaist, ghaist (“ghost”) * Swedish gast (“ghost”) * Vilamovian gȧjst (“ghost, spirit”) * West Frisian geast (“ghost, spirit”) * Yiddish גײַסט (gayst, “ghost, spirit”) * Yola gaast (“ghost”)

In the form be ghost: not present or involved; absent, gone.
“Thug held up a middle finger. "A'ight y'all. I'm ghost."”
“But I don't see no competition in the game and I'm pissing on it If it ain't about the family, then I'm ghost and that's a promise”

noun

A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.
“Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.”
“He believes in ghosts.”
A spirit; a human soul.
“hen gins her grieued ghost thus to lament and mourne.”
“Enlightening the eyes and a taste for hope, emotions are felt from an inward ghost.”
Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.
“not a ghost of a chance”
“the ghost of an idea”
A false image, for example in a photographic print or negative, or on a television screen or radar display, or in a telescope, caused by poor or double reception or reflection (from a lens or screen).
“There was less flicker, jitter was nonexistent, and the screen pattern had been rendered far more viewworthy, with ghosts being virtually suppressed.”
A faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.
“Regardless of GRM used, graffiti ghosts persist. Protect cladding with surface coating or replace with graffiti resistant paint or laminate.”
Ellipsis of ghostwriter.
“I’ve written both as a ghost for experts and under my name.”
A nonexistent person invented to obtain some (typically fraudulent) benefit.
“Some health systems are plagued by "ghost" and "absent" workers. Ghost workers are nonexistent, listed in the payroll, and paid, a clear sign of corruption.”
“1,500 secondary schools in Jiangxi found 125 cases of illegally collected Ghosts and Absentees fees worth $2 million.”
A dead person whose identity is stolen by another (see ghosting).
An unresponsive user on IRC, resulting from the user's client disconnecting without notifying the server.
“This will let you open a query with NickServ again so you can remove your “ghost” from the server: […]”
A copy of a file or record.
An understudy.
A covert (and deniable) agent.
An opponent in a racing game that follows a previously recorded route, allowing players to compete against previous best times.
“This is also the case for some racing games (Super Mario Kart is a good example) that allow you to compete against your ghosts, which are precise recordings of your performance.”
Someone whose identity cannot be established because there are no records of such a person.
“"[…]no record of a Robert, or Bobby, Maclain that fits our man's description," Kuzbec said. "No social, no driver's license, no address, no military service record. He's a ghost." Kirov did find that interesting.”
“"He's a ghost. No record of any kind, anywhere. I got nothing when I did a trace. I'm thinking he was either erased or he's something we don't know about." Nyk rubbed at his jaw. "If he was erased, Syn, he'd have a record[…]"”
An unphysical state in a gauge theory.
“The proof is well known, and independent of the metric, but to make certain we prove it here also for the case when the state vector system of an operator contains multipole^([sic]) ghosts.”
“Soon after, the proof of the No-Ghost Theorem, establishing that the DRM has no ghosts if d ≤ 26, was achieved independently by Brower (1972) and by Goddard and Thorn (1972).”
A formerly nonexistent character that was at some point mistakenly encoded into a character set standard, which might have since become used opportunistically for some genuine purpose.
“彁 is a ghost character from the Japanese JIS X 0208 character set.”
Ellipsis of ghost pepper.
“Spicy or mild, lovely bells or scary ghosts, peppers belong in your garden. Not only are they delicious, they add a gorgeous pop of color to vegetable gardens. When starting pepper seeds, consider using a heat mat.”
“Fresh chili has a glossy smooth skin like a bell pepper...unless you're in scorching territory, with the likes of Ghosts or Reapers (their name should give the game away), where the skin looks [wrinkled].”
A game in which players take turns to add a letter to a possible word, trying not to complete a word.
“GHOST. This is a spelling game. A person gives a letter, […] his next neighbor must think of a word beginning with this letter, and then say the second letter, […]”
“[…]word is, you win the round. But be warned : if she does have a real word in mind, you lose. Bluffing[:] It's possible to bluff in Ghost. For example, you can pretend to add a suffix to a word, even if that word doesn't exist. If no[…]”
White or pale.
“ghost slug”
“ghost flower”
Transparent or translucent.
“ghost ant”
“ghost catfish”
Abandoned.
“ghost town”
“ghost ship”
Remnant; remains.
“ghost apples (a thin layer of ice in the shape of an apple, which forms around it and is left behind when the apple rots and falls out)”
“ghost fossils (impressions of things like shells that remain in the rock after the shell etc dissolves)”
Perceived or listed but not real.
“ghost cellphone vibration”
“ghost pain”
Of a cryptid, supernatural or extraterrestrial nature.
“ghost rocket”
“ghost deer”
Substitute.
“ghost writer”
“ghost singer”

verb

Of a disembodied soul: to appear (somewhere or to someone) in the form of an apparition; to haunt.
“since Julius Caesar, / Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted”
To imbue (something) with a ghost-like effect or hue.
“It spread slowly up from the sea-rim, a welling upwards of pure white light, ghosting the beach with silver and drawing the grey bastions of sandstone out of formless space.”
To continuously cause (someone or something) trouble; specifically, to continuously be in the thoughts of (someone) in a disturbing manner; to perturb, to trouble.
To kill (someone).
“My recommendation: Do me. Don't take the chance that I'll get shiv-happy on your wannabe ass. Ghost me, Riddick. Would if I were you. Though I notice he tried to ghost my ass. When he shot up that stranger instead.”
“He just ghosted two guys, and I never even saw him. Plan was to clean the bank, ghost the mercs, break wide through the tunnel.”
To gray out (a visual element) to indicate that it is unavailable.
“Whenever a menu or menu item is inappropriate or unavailable for selection, it should be ghosted. Never allow the user to select something that does nothing in response.”
To forcibly disconnect (an IRC user) who is using one's reserved nickname.
“I'm so untechnical that I once ghosted a registered IRC nick and then tried to identify myself to NickServ with the valid password before actually changing my nick to the aforementioned moniker.”
To stop communicating with (someone) on social media, through text messages, etc., without explanation, especially as a way of ending a relationship; hence, to end a relationship with (someone) by stopping all communication without explanation.
“I've recently been trying out Tinder, and while I match with people and even chat with them everything seems to be going well, but whenever I bring up meeting IRL, they are quick to ghost me.”
“By 6 p.m., I had a list of restaurants to try from Hamish, a chef who couldn't meet, a follow-up from Adam ("I've never seen a room at the Ace...."), and an offer from Agoraphobic Paul to come over and "have a joint and a cuddle." I'd confirmed a walking tour of Greenwich from Max, who ghosted.”
To transfer (a prisoner) to another prison, usually without first informing the prisoner.
“His power base, however, is undermined by him being constantly, “ghosted”, or moved from prison to prison.”
Synonym of ghostwrite (“to write (a literary work or speech), or produce (an artistic work)), in the place of someone”); also, to carry out (an artistic performance) in the place of someone.
“Here's how it went: Larry Parks as elderly Al Jolson was watching Larry Parks playing young Al Jolson in the first movie — in other words, Parks ghosting for Parks. At the same time, Jolson himself was ghosting the voices for both of them.”
“Well, you wrote a few books, you wrote a famous play, and even that was half ghosted.”
To appear suddenly or move like a disembodied soul; specifically (often sports); also (transitive, dated) followed by the dummy subject it: to move easily and quietly without anyone noticing; to slip.
“Arsenal came into the match under severe pressure and nerves were palpable early on as Pratley was brilliantly denied by Szczesny after ghosting in front of Kieran Gibbs”
“At the flank of the main stage, I took root for an hour, until a female form ghosted in front of me that I recognised from university two years before.”
Followed by for: synonym of ghostwrite (“to write a literary work or speech, or produce an artistic work, in the place of someone”); also, to carry out an artistic performance in the place of someone.
Of a sailing vessel: to sail seemingly with very little or no wind.
“They move without any visible sign of movement, like a wakeless ship ghosting over the water.”
Apparently only in the writings of the Dutch-English physician Gideon Harvey (c. 1636–1640 – c. 1700–1702): to die, to expire.