GHOST

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ghost mean? 

• GHOST (noun)
  The noun GHOST has 4 senses:

1. a mental representation of some haunting experience

2. a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else

3. the visible disembodied soul of a dead person

4. a suggestion of some quality

  Familiarity information: GHOST used as a noun is uncommon.

• GHOST (verb)
  The verb GHOST has 3 senses:

1. move like a ghost

2. haunt like a ghost; pursue

3. write for someone else

  Familiarity information: GHOST used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GHOST (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A mental representation of some haunting experience

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

ghost; shade; specter; spectre; spook; wraith

Context example:

it aroused specters from his past

Hypernyms ("ghost" is a kind of...):

apparition; fantasm; phantasm; phantasma; phantom; shadow (something existing in perception only)

Derivation:

ghost (haunt like a ghost; pursue)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

ghost; ghostwriter

Hypernyms ("ghost" is a kind of...):

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Derivation:

ghost (write for someone else)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The visible disembodied soul of a dead person

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("ghost" is a kind of...):

psyche; soul (the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "ghost"):

poltergeist (a ghost that announces its presence with rapping and the creation of disorder)

revenant (someone who has returned from the dead)

Derivation:

ghost (move like a ghost)

ghostly (resembling or characteristic of a phantom)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A suggestion of some quality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

ghost; touch; trace

Context example:

he detected a ghost of a smile on her face

Hypernyms ("ghost" is a kind of...):

proffer; proposition; suggestion (a proposal offered for acceptance or rejection)

• GHOST (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ghost    ... he / she / it ghosts   
Past simple: ghosted   
Past participle: ghosted   
-ing form: ghosting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Move like a ghost

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

The masked men ghosted across the moonlit yard

Hypernyms (to "ghost" is one way to...):

go; locomote; move; travel (change location; move, travel, or proceed, also metaphorically)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Derivation:

ghost (the visible disembodied soul of a dead person)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Haunt like a ghost; pursue

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

ghost; haunt; obsess

Context example:

Fear of illness haunts her

Hypernyms (to "ghost" is one way to...):

preoccupy (engage or engross the interest or attention of beforehand or occupy urgently or obsessively)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The good news will ghost her

Derivation:

ghost (a mental representation of some haunting experience)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Write for someone else

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

ghost; ghostwrite

Context example:

How many books have you ghostwritten so far?

Hypernyms (to "ghost" is one way to...):

author (be the author of)

Domain category:

authorship; composition; penning; writing (the act of creating written works)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

Did he ghost his major works over a short period of time?

Derivation:

ghost (a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else)

 Context examples 

All the ghosts of the past arose and were with him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But the next moment, and by an effort of will, the ghost was laid again.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Ischemic tissue necrosis characterized by the preservation of the architectural pattern and a necrotic ghost appearance of the cells.

(Coagulative Necrosis, NCI Thesaurus)

"Oh! I saw a light, and I thought a ghost would come."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The determination of the amount of erythrocyte ghosts (erythrocytes in which hemoglobin has been removed through hemolysis) present in a sample.

(Erythrocyte Ghost Count, NCI Thesaurus)

It was a long and gloomy night that gathered on me, haunted by the ghosts of many hopes, of many dear remembrances, many errors, many unavailing sorrows and regrets.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The sexton, however, remained standing motionless that the boy might think he was a ghost.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Not a ghost of a motive can anyone suggest.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Yes," Martin answered. "I seen a ghost. Good night. Good night, Gertrude."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I had the honour to dine with the governor, where a new set of ghosts served up the meat, and waited at table.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)