ghoul

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He had come by night in the devil-carriage that is noiseless as a ghoul, and moving among us asleep, had taken away both the guns and the book!

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

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

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Danley probably thought he was some kind of ghoul, Andreas thought. —  Iris Johansen - Final Target
  • They used to say that she was a ghoul, a female vampire; but I believe she was none other than Beelzebub himself He ceased to speak, and commenced to regard me more attentively than ever, as though to observe the effect of his words on me. —  Clarimonde
  • Those two back in the stern next to old ghoul-face--how do those strike you? —  Left on Labrador or, The cruise of the Schooner-yacht 'Curlew.' as Recorded by 'Wash.'
  • Mirza, the Polish Jewess, who became Lady Lashmore in 1615, practised sorcery in life and became, after death, a ghoul--one who sustained an unholy existence by unholy means--a vampire But, sir! —  Brood of the Witch-Queen
  • And across the black water, in that ghoul-haunted, trackless wilderness, could be heard the sound of timber being rent in splinters and of great trees crashing down the mountainside Suddenly a word from Westy Martin aroused them all like a cannon shot Look!" —  Tom Slade's Double Dare
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

animator ·  zombie ·  werewolf ·  pixie ·  troll ·  goblin ·  gnome ·  unicorn ·  spook ·  necromancer ·  hobgoblin ·  specter

Used in the same contextWord Family

ghoul:   ghouls
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Arabic ġūl, from ġāla, to seize, snatch; see ġwl in Semitic roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also written ghole, goule, gowl, etc.; from Arabic ghūl, Persian ghūl, ghōl, also ghuwal, a demon of the mountains and the woods, supposed to devour men and other animals.
 

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/gul/
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