ghastily

comparative more ghastily · superlative most ghastily

1. In a ghastly manner.

   Johnnie’s face […] is ghastily beaten, bloodied, cut and swollen, eyes shut, neck limp;

   1949, James Agee, “The Blue Hotel”, in Agee on Film, Volume II, New York: McDowell Obolensky, published 1960, page 453

   2 more examples

   […] in their various attitudes of death / My murdered children’s mute and eyeless sculls / Glared ghastily upon me.

   1821, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab, section VII, page 68

   When he tosseth his head, / The drear-white steed, / And ghastily champeth the last moon-ray,— / What angel there / Can lead him away, / That the living may rule for the Dead?

   1850, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Drama of Exile”, in Mrs. Browning’s Poems, page 58

   Synonyms: ghastlily