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ghastliness. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ghastliness, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ghastliness in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
ghastliness you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From ghastly + -ness.
Noun
ghastliness (countable and uncountable, plural ghastlinesses)
- The state of being ghastly.
c. 1580s, Philip Sidney, “Astrophel and Stella”, in [Mary Sidney], editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], 3rd edition, London: [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1598, →OCLC, sonnet 96, page 564:In both a mazefull ſolitarineſſe: / In night of ſprites the gaſtly powers to ſtur, / In thee or ſprites or ſprited gaſtlineſſe: […]
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. , volume I, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 184:Francesca felt oppressed as she gazed on the bare walls, the wooden pallet, the crucifix at the foot, where the wan light of the ill-supplied lamp gave a strange ghastliness to the dying agony of the Saviour.
- A ghastly thing.