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  1. ghoul love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. One who delights in the revolting, morbid, or loathsome.
  2. n. A grave robber.
  3. n. An evil spirit or demon in Muslim folklore believed to plunder graves and feed on corpses.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. An imaginary evil being supposed among Eastern nations to prey upon human bodies; an ogre.

Wiktionary

  1. n. mythology, folklore A spirit said to feed on corpses.
  2. n. A graverobber; a person with an undue interest in death and corpses.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. An imaginary evil being among Eastern nations, which was supposed to feed upon human bodies.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an evil spirit or ghost
  2. n. someone who takes bodies from graves and sells them for anatomical dissection

Etymologies

  1. Persian غول (ğul) — an imaginary sylvan demon, supposed to devour men and animals. Cognate to Arabic غول and French goule, and to English alcohol. (Wiktionary)
  2. Arabic ġūl, from ġāla, to seize, snatch; see ġwl in Semitic roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “In Somalia and Afghanistan clerics matter-of-factly described to your correspondent the range of jinn they had encountered, from the saintly to the demonic; those that can fly, those that crawl, plodding jinn, invisible jinn, gul with vampiric tendencies (from which the English word ghoul is taken), and shape-shifters recognisable in human form because their feet are turned backwards.”

    Archive 2006-12-01

  • “She is also the oldest living ghoul from the 1968 horror classic "Night of the Living Dead.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Elderly Zombies Win the Undying Loyalty of Their Fans

  • “Your lives are boring and the fact that you are posting on this site about a Rupert Everett Wanabee ghoul is proof thereof.”

    Are Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart Having It Off Or What?

  • “No doubt these miserable villagers, with lives barely worth the few boney fish they hauled daily, were superstitious on top of their misery, thinking the wearied traveler a reaper out for their souls, or a ghoul from the deeps hungry for their flesh.”

    Archive 2009-12-01

  • ““Not much of a ghoul, is she?” the Wendigo asked the mare.”

    GHOULS • by Megan Arkenberg

  • “For example, the star Algol, which is located in Taurus, is given in many dictionaries as descending from al-ghāla, ` the destroyer, 'but its more likely origin is the more familiar form from the same root: ghul ` a woodland demon' from which we got our word ghoul, ` a defiler of graves. ”

    Verbatim: VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol V No 3

  • “Combining a slow motor, a simple system of pulleys, and a deathly amount of fun (and almost as much electricity), this ghoul will be the “life” of your Halloween party.”

    Boing Boing

  • “The worst of it is that such a compilation brings a man money, because there are always plenty of people who like to dabble in mud; and a ghoul is the most impervious of beings, probably because a ghoul of this species regards himself merely as an unprejudiced seeker after truth, and claims to be what he would call a realist.”

    The Silent Isle

  • “I've structured the campaign such that the opponents become increasingly more powerful; a ghoul is a much more appropriate threat to a Gritty or Procedural level game, while Chthonians are great Pulp or Superhero-level villains.”

    RPGnet

  • “The ghoul is a product called Zombie of Montclaire Moors, an $89.95 sculpture made of "designer resin" that gives the impression a zombie is clawing his way out of your yard.”

    chicagotribune.com -

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Lists

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Comments

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  • wackyvorlon This word sounds so appropriate. Can you imagine Ed Gein described as anything other than a ghoul? Sep 24, 2008

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‘ghoul’ has been looked up 2890 times, loved by 3 people, added to 30 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 9.