"ghost character" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ghost characters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "ghost character (plural ghost characters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Drama",
          "orig": "en:Drama",
          "parents": [
            "Theater",
            "Art",
            "Entertainment",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Literature",
          "orig": "en:Literature",
          "parents": [
            "Culture",
            "Entertainment",
            "Writing",
            "Society",
            "Human behaviour",
            "Language",
            "All topics",
            "Human",
            "Communication",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Catherine M. S. Alexander, The Cambridge Shakespeare Library, Cambridge University Press, page 231",
          "text": "Beside this detailed information which Hall provides about Matthew Gough, Shakespeare's Gough is a ghost character. There is, indeed, no way in which an audience could pick up who he is when he appears only to be killed immediately.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, David Coleman, John Webster, Renaissance Dramatist, Edinburgh University Press, page 68",
          "text": "A ‘ghost’ character is one who is marked as present on stage, but given no lines to speak: many editors consider the inclusion of these characters to be an oversight on the part of the writer or printer, and so remove them from modern stage directions; […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Lena Cowen Orlin, Othello, A&C Black, page 277",
          "text": "Joseph A. Porter's discussion of the ‘ghost character’ of Valentine in Romeo and Juliet is also illuminating: Porter describes Valentine as a ‘symptom or by-product of Mercutio's transformation’ from rival lover (in Shakespeare's source) to friend […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose."
      ],
      "id": "en-ghost_character-en-noun-O1oGxZCe",
      "links": [
        [
          "drama",
          "drama"
        ],
        [
          "literature",
          "literature"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "stage",
          "stage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(drama, literature) A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "broadcasting",
        "drama",
        "dramaturgy",
        "entertainment",
        "film",
        "lifestyle",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "television",
        "theater"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "27 73",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "30 70",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Stock characters",
          "orig": "en:Stock characters",
          "parents": [
            "Fictional characters",
            "Fiction",
            "Artistic works",
            "Art",
            "Culture",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin."
      ],
      "id": "en-ghost_character-en-noun-XD~-W7~4",
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "Kanji",
          "kanji"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ghost character"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "en:Stock characters"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ghost characters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "ghost character (plural ghost characters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Drama",
        "en:Literature"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2003, Catherine M. S. Alexander, The Cambridge Shakespeare Library, Cambridge University Press, page 231",
          "text": "Beside this detailed information which Hall provides about Matthew Gough, Shakespeare's Gough is a ghost character. There is, indeed, no way in which an audience could pick up who he is when he appears only to be killed immediately.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, David Coleman, John Webster, Renaissance Dramatist, Edinburgh University Press, page 68",
          "text": "A ‘ghost’ character is one who is marked as present on stage, but given no lines to speak: many editors consider the inclusion of these characters to be an oversight on the part of the writer or printer, and so remove them from modern stage directions; […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2014, Lena Cowen Orlin, Othello, A&C Black, page 277",
          "text": "Joseph A. Porter's discussion of the ‘ghost character’ of Valentine in Romeo and Juliet is also illuminating: Porter describes Valentine as a ‘symptom or by-product of Mercutio's transformation’ from rival lover (in Shakespeare's source) to friend […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "drama",
          "drama"
        ],
        [
          "literature",
          "literature"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "stage",
          "stage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(drama, literature) A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but who does not do anything, and who seems to have no purpose."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "broadcasting",
        "drama",
        "dramaturgy",
        "entertainment",
        "film",
        "lifestyle",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing",
        "television",
        "theater"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Computing"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "Kanji",
          "kanji"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) Kanji included in JIS X 0208 of unknown origin."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ghost character"
}