ghost

hen gins her grieued ghost thus to lament and mourne.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31:

Enlightening the eyes and a taste for hope, emotions are felt from an inward ghost.

2013, Kenneth Palmer, Just Thoughts: Looking at Man's Whole Self, page 20:

If I thought that “I” referred to my inner ghost, I wouldn't be worried because a bullet can't hurt a ghost, and equally there would be no point in your shooting.

2014, Neville Moray, Science, Cells and Souls: An Introduction to Human Nature:

It also required four years of finding your inner ghost and becoming one with it. The inner ghost is within every person who is still alive.

2017, Anastasia Burton, You and I, in a Thousand Moons:

(uncommon or dated) The spirit; the human soul.

Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.

The mighty ghosts of our great Harries rose.

1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. […], London: […] Henry Herringman, […], →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):

I thought that I had died in sleep/And was a blessed ghost

1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere:

For a moment I was puzzled, but presently, of course, it struck me that he must have seen Ayesha, wrapped in her grave-like garment, and been deceived by the extraordinary undulating smoothness of her walk into a belief that she was a white ghost gliding towards him.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.

1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:

The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC:

Armistead Maupin's novels reflect more awareness of, and affection for, the texture of real life than As If After Sex. Maupin's characters may get into cartoonlike adventures, but they are real people. Torchia's characters do drearily familiar things, but they are ghosts.

1984 December 29, Duncan Mitchel, “The Cult of Gay Machismo”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 14:

Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, archived from the original on 2013-07-17, pages 206–7:

[…] She barely answers his questions. She’s a ghost of herself. And then Hot Pie gives us the key to Arya’s whole thing this season so far: She didn’t know that Jon had defeated the Boltons.

2017 July 23, Brandon Nowalk, “The great game begins with a bang on Game Of Thrones (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:

not a ghost of a chance

the ghost of an idea

Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.

A false image formed in a telescope, camera, or other optical device by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.

There was less flicker, jitter was nonexistent, and the screen pattern had been rendered far more viewworthy, with ghosts being virtually suppressed.

2007, Albert Abramson, The History of Television, 1942 to 2000, page 60:

An unwanted image similar to and overlapping or adjacent to the main one on a television screen, caused by the transmitted image being received both directly and via reflection.

I've written both as a ghost for experts and under my name.

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.

2004, Joint Learning Initiative, Global Equity Initiative, Human Resources for Health: Overcoming the Crisis, page 76:

1,500 secondary schools in Jiangxi found 125 cases of illegally collected Ghosts and Absentees fees worth $2 million.

2008, The Asia-Pacific Human Development Report, page 63:

Before filling out this form, please visit the Pennsic Pre-Registration Page to create your account and enter your campers and ghosts [nonexistent campers one pays for to legitimately increase the size of one's allotted camping space].

2023, Barony of Ponte Alto, Society for Creative Anachronism, Ponte Alto Pennsic Encampment 2023 - Barony Registration

A nonexistent person invented to obtain some (typically fraudulent) benefit.

A dead person whose identity is stolen by another. See ghosting.

This will let you open a query with NickServ again so you can remove your “ghost” from the server: […]

2004, Paul Mutton, IRC Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools, page 31:

(Internet) An unresponsive user on IRC, resulting from the user's client disconnecting without notifying the server.

(computing) An image of a file or hard disk.

(espionage) A covert (and deniable) agent.

Regardless of GRM used, graffiti ghosts persist. Protect cladding with surface coating or replace with graffiti resistant paint or laminate.

1992, Maurice J. Whitford, Getting Rid of Graffiti, page 45:

The faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.

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.

2012, Keith Burgun, Game Design Theory: A New Philosophy for Understanding Games:

(video games) An opponent in a racing game that follows a previously recorded route, allowing players to compete against previous best times.

Someone whose identity cannot be established because there are no records of him/her.

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.

1966, Kàzmèr L. Nagy, State Vector Spaces with Indefinite Metric in Quantum Field Theory, page 14:

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).

2019, Radin Dardashti, Richard Dawid, Karim Thébault, Why Trust a Theory?, page 180:

(quantum mechanics) An unphysical state in a gauge theory.

彁 is a ghost character from the Japanese JIS X 0208 character set.

(attributive, linguistics, computing) 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.

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.

2018 October 2, Julie Thompson-Adolf, Starting & Saving Seeds: Grow the Perfect Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs, and Flowers for Your Garden, Cool Springs Press, →ISBN, page 68:

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].

2022 July 5, Alice Zaslavsky, In Praise of Veg: The Ultimate Cookbook for Vegetable Lovers, Appetite by Random House, →ISBN:

(uncountable) A game in which players take turns to add a letter to a possible word, trying not to complete a word.

ghost slug

ghostflower

(attributive, in names of species) White or pale.

ghost ant

ghost catfish

(attributive, in names of species) Transparent or translucent.

ghost town

ghost ship

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)

ghost cell

ghost craters (craters that have been filled, e.g. with volcanic deposits)

ghost image

(attributive) Remnant; the remains of a(n).

ghost cellphone vibration

ghost pain

ghost island

ghost voter

(attributive) Perceived or listed but not real.

ghost rocket

ghost deer

(attributive) Of cryptid, supernatural or extraterrestrial nature.

Of cryptid, supernatural or extraterrestrial nature.

ghost writer

ghost singer

en-noun

ghost (countable and uncountable, plural ghosts)

→ Japanese: ゴースト (gōsuto)

Inherited from Middle English gost, from Old English gāst (which was the word for “spirit” as well as “ghost”; the original sense survives in Modern English Holy Ghost), from Proto-West Germanic *gaist, from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéysdos, derived 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’, likely introduced by Caxton's assistant, Wynkyn de Worde, as a result of Flemish influence, where it was spelled gheest at the time. Doublet of geist.


ghost

since Julius Caesar, / Who at Philippi the good Brutus ghosted

c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi], line 1221:

(obsolete, transitive) To haunt; to appear to in the form of an apparition.

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.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 32:

(literary) To imbue with a ghost-like hue or effect.

To imbue with a ghost-like hue or effect.

Well, you wrote a few books, you wrote a famous play, and even that was half ghosted.

1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 41:

The current issue carries an extraordinary 26,000-word piece by Andrew O'Hagan on his failed attempt to ghost the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's memoir, which was trending on Twitter before copies even hit the news-stands.

2014 March 9, Elizabeth Day, “Is the LRB the best magazine in the world?”, in The Observer:

(transitive, intransitive) To ghostwrite.

They move without any visible sign of movement, like a wakeless ship ghosting over the water.

2016, Nathanael Johnson, Unseen City, →ISBN, page 192:

(nautical) To sail seemingly without wind.

(computing) To copy a file or hard drive image.

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.

1991, Amiga User Interface Style Guide, page 76:

graphical user interface
graphical user interface

(graphical user interface) To gray out (a visual item) to indicate that it is unavailable.

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.

2001, Luke, “to leave (vb.): Hurg [OT]”, in alt.games.lucas-arts.monkey-island (Usenet):

(Internet, transitive) To forcibly disconnect an IRC user who is using one's reserved nickname.

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

2011 September 24, David Ornstein, “Arsenal 3 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC Sport:

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.

2011, Mark Harnden, In the Dark Backyard, →ISBN, page 59:

He ghosted through the door. It clanged a few seconds later as his pursuer pounded on it.

2012, Ian Tregillis, Bitter Seeds, →ISBN:

(intransitive) To appear or move without warning, quickly and quietly; to slip.

His power base, however, is undermined by him being constantly, “ghosted”, or moved from prison to prison.

2020, Jamie Bennett, Victoria Knight, Prisoners on Prison Films, page 26:

(transitive) To transfer (a prisoner) to another prison without the prior knowledge of other inmates.

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.

2000, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy, Pitch Black (film):

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.

2004, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy, The Chronicles of Riddick (film):

This may come as a shock to you, Johns, but I didn't ghost your son. He seemed set on killin' himself. Diaz was gonna take the nodes for himself and ghost me. He was gonna leave you out here alone.

2013, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, David Twohy, Riddick (film):

RONALD:”They tried to ghost your girl Isabel right here”. WES CHANDLER(played by Ron Perlman):”Tried to ‘ghost’ her?” RONALD:”Merk. 86. Put her down in the dirt. You feel me?”

2017 September 28, Josh Corbin, 37:03 from the start, in Start Up, season 2, episode 6, spoken by Ronald Dacey (Edi Gathegi):

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.

2015 October 15, “Why is it so hard to go from chatting on Tinder to meeting up in real life?”, in The Guardian:

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.

2016 March 21, Allison P. Davies, “What I Learned Tindering My Way Across Europe”, in Travel + Leisure, archived from the original on 2018-01-06:

Tinder knows me so well. It knows the real, inglorious version of me who copy-pasted the same joke to match 567, 568, and 569; who exchanged compulsively with 16 different people simultaneously one New Year’s Day, and then ghosted 16 of them.

2017 September 26, Judith Duportail, “I asked Tinder for my data. It sent me 800 pages of my deepest, darkest secrets”, in The Guardian:

He had texted, called, and emailed a bunch since then. I hadn't meant to ghost, but it was just easier not to deal with it.

2018, Ling Ma, chapter 17, in Severance, →ISBN:

(slang, social media) To perform an act of ghosting: to break up with someone without warning or explanation; to ignore someone, especially on social media.

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.

1955, Saturday Review (volume 38, part 2, page 27)

One of the few performers to triumph over ghosting was Ava Gardner in Freed's Show Boat (1951). Not only does she lip-synch with breathtaking accuracy, her performance gives the cotton-candy production its only underpinning of realism.

1999, The Golden Age of Musicals, page 50:

(film) To provide the speaking or singing voice for another actor, who is lip-syncing.

en-verb

ghost (third-person singular simple present ghosts, present participle ghosting, simple past and past participle ghosted)

ghosts (present singular third-person)
ghosting (participle present)
ghosted (participle past)
ghosted (past)

ghostol

computing: to copy a file or hard drive image — see also copy

kiszürkít

graphical user interface: to gray out (a visual item) to indicate that it is unavailable — see also gray out

oson

intransitive: to appear or move without warning, quickly and quietly; to slip — see also slip

ghosten

slang, social media: to perform an act of ghosting: to break up with someone without warning or explanation; to ignore someone, especially on social media


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

2019, “Going Through It” (track 6), in Ignorance Is Bliss, performed by Skepta: