ghastliness

English[edit]

From ghastly +‎ -ness.

ghastliness (countable and uncountable, plural ghastlinesses)

The state of being ghastly.
- c. 1580s, Philip Sidney, “Astrophel and Stella”, in Mary Sidney, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia […], 3rd edition, London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1598, →OCLC, sonnet 96, page 564:
  In both a mazefull ſolitarineſſe: / In night of ſprites the gaſtly powers to ſtur, / In thee or ſprites or ſprited gaſtlineſſe: […]
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 184:
  Francesca felt oppressed as she gazed on the bare walls, the wooden pallet, the crucifix at the foot, where the wan light of the ill-supplied lamp gave a strange ghastliness to the dying agony of the Saviour.
A ghastly thing.