/ gəʊst; NAmE goʊst/ noun , verb
■ noun
1.
[ C ] the spirit of a dead person that a living person believes they can see or hear :
Do you believe in ghosts (= believe that they exist) ?
the ghost of her father that had come back to haunt her
He looked as if he had seen a ghost (= looked very frightened) .
2.
[ C ] the memory of sth, especially sth bad :
The ghost of anti-Semitism still haunts Europe.
3.
[ sing. ] ghost of sth a very slight amount of sth that is left behind or that you are not sure really exists :
There was a ghost of a smile on his face.
You don't have a ghost of a chance (= you have no chance) .
4.
[ sing. ] a second image on a television screen that is not as clear as the first, caused by a fault
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IDIOMS
- give up the ghost
—more at former
■ verb
1.
= ghostwrite
2.
[ v + adv. / prep. ] ( literary ) to move without making a sound :
They ghosted up the smooth waters of the river.
••
WORD ORIGIN
Old English gāst (in the sense spirit, soul ), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch geest and German Geist . The gh- spelling occurs first in Caxton, probably influenced by Flemish gheest .