ghastly

He later describes his work as “cleansing the world of an ancient evil,” and is haunted by a ghastly vision of a spirit he encountered abroad.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

While adamantly miserabilist, it does have a plot or at least one shocking plot point that’s so ghastly it made me giddy.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026

Target’s collection, on the other hand, is one of the most ghastly sartorial abominations ever made, let alone sold for real money.

From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2026

Those usual characteristics of the Brisbane pitch, namely pace and bounce, should suit England's battery of pace bowlers, as they did in the first innings in Perth before things took a ghastly turn.

From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2025

“Poor Maxim,” she said, “he went through a ghastly time, and let’s hope you have made him forget about it. Of course he adores Manderley.”

From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier

Not least because, given various developing news stories relating to our hosts, the tournament has rather ghastlier noises-off than usual.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 11, 2018

Now investigators believe that both versions have a piece of the even ghastlier truth.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sigmund Freud himself could not have contrived a ghastlier childhood for a poet.

From Time Magazine Archive

It was noted, however, by some who chanced to meet him upon the street and glanced curiously at him, that he was ghastlier than ever, with sunken cheeks and dull eyes.

From The Lash by Olin L. Lyman

Before Faith could comprehend, or turn, or cry out, the paleness blanched ghastlier over his features, and the strong man fell back, fainting.

From Faith Gartney's Girlhood by A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train) Whitney

Minnesota will try to revive its fading playoff hopes four days after one of the ghastliest losses of the season, a 29-27 defeat Sunday to the previously winless Detroit Lions.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 9, 2021

They made it to the Super Bowl in 2014, only to have the ghastliest ending in football history against the Patriots.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2021

It was that ghastliest of hours — 3 a.m. — bedtime a distant memory and daylight an eternity away.

From New York Times ● Oct. 30, 2020

Native American activists said it trivialized one of the ghastliest episodes in Dakota indigenous history.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2017

They have gathered about you the harvest   Of death in its ghastliest view; The nearest as well as the furthest   Is there with the traitor and true.

From War Poetry of the South by Various