ghosts

Noun

ghost (countable and uncountable, plural ghosts)

1. A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death.
   • Everyone believed that the ghost of an old lady haunted the crypt.

   Synonyms:

   apparition, bogey, phantom, revenant, specter, spook

2. (archaic, literary) A spirit; a human soul.
   • hen gins her grieued ghost thus to lament and mourne.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31

   Synonyms:

   essence, soul, spirit, anima

3. (broadly) Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image.
   • not a ghost of a chance

   Synonyms:

   glimmer, glimmering, glimpse, hint, inkling, phantom, spark, suggestion

4. A false image, for example in a photographic print or negative, or on a television screen or radar display, or in a telescope, caused by poor or double reception or reflection (from a lens or screen).
   • There was less flicker, jitter was nonexistent, and the screen pattern had been rendered far more viewworthy, with ghosts being virtually suppressed.2007, Albert Abramson, The History of Television, 1942 to 2000, page 60

   Synonyms:

   echo

5. (slang, cleaning) A faint image that remains after an attempt to remove graffiti.
   • Regardless of GRM used, graffiti ghosts persist. Protect cladding with surface coating or replace with graffiti resistant paint or laminate.1992, M. J. Whitford, Getting Rid of Graffiti, Routledge, →ISBN, page 45

   Synonyms:

   shadow

6. A nonexistent person invented to obtain some (typically fraudulent) benefit.
   • Some health systems are plagued by "ghost" and "absent" workers. Ghost workers are nonexistent, listed in the payroll, and paid, a clear sign of corruption.2004, Joint Learning Initiative, Global Equity Initiative, Human Resources for Health: Overcoming the Crisis, page 76

See all 37 meanings of ghost