ghoulish
/ˈɡuːlɪʃ
/adjective
1Resembling or characteristic of a ghoul: a ghoulish mask...
- Usually, the Salem native is called upon to make people look good, not ghoulish.
- Also in the store was Cher, who purchased some devilish goods including containers of face paint to create a garish, ghoulish glow.
- Up to now they have scraped a living by producing ghoulish dolls.
Synonyms
macabre, grisly, gruesome, grotesque, ghastly, morbid
unhealthy, perverted, death-obsessed, morbid, black;
horrible, unwholesome, revolting
informal sick
2Morbidly interested in death or disaster: she told the story with ghoulish relish...
- The plundering of body parts of radiation victims reached ghoulish proportions.
- Whether you are tramping through muddy forests, mysterious tunnels or misty waters, the locations drip with ghoulish detail.
- The story of what happens next has been told innumerable times, to the point of having become a ghoulish soap opera.
Derivatives
ghoulishly
/ adverb ...- Another details his assassination at Sarajevo in June 1914 including ghoulishly exhibiting the blood-stained shirt he was wearing at the time.
- Yes, I am talking about Hallowe'en, which is creeping ghoulishly closer and which seems to get bigger and scarier each year.
- Hank's father Buck is an unmitigated racist who ghoulishly collects newspaper clippings about Lawrence's execution.
ghoulishness
- This cartoon will thrill older children with its ghoulishness, which is admirably extreme, but never excessive.
- I'm not saying that we should not see these things, but are they now treated with a ghoulishness that belittles the losses that the images represent?
- There is absolutely positively and unequivocally zero news value in this ghoulishness.