ghoulish

adjective

ghoul·​ish ˈgü-lish 

1

: resembling, suggesting, or appropriate to a ghoul

a ghoulish appearance

I knew not at what moment I might plunge headlong into some terrible pit or meet with some of the ghoulish creatures that inhabit these lower worlds …

—Edgar Rice Burroughs

Many of their sculptures depict the ghoulish spirits … and their paternal leader, Baron Samedi, the lord of death, decay and grotesque eroticism.

—Holland Cotter

2

: relating to, dealing with, or morbidly delighting in things considered shocking or gruesome

ghoulish thoughts

ghoulish humor

… the grieving family asked for his help in a rather ghoulish affair.

—Behn Cervantes

… his photographs present the aftermath of battles somewhat in the manner of ghoulish still lifes …

—Naomi Rosenblum

Annie was a fine, strapping girl, and was evidently labouring under intense excitement, mingled with a certain ghoulish enjoyment of the tragedy.

—Agatha Christie

… he offers the reader a deliciously ghoulish potted history of absurd burial techniques.

—Lawrence Osborne

ghoulishly adverb

laughing ghoulishly

Lurid, violent, … morbidly sentimental and ghoulishly capricious, this is the kind of painting which grabs the modern imagination for the most dubious of reasons.

—Jonathan Keates

ghoulishness noun

… a zany cross between wild farce and macabre ghoulishness …

—John Percival

Examples of ghoulish in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Another patron was Pennsylvania oddity collector Joshua Taylor, who runs a ghoulish Instagram account called Angry Beard Antiques, featuring photos of skulls, bones, and postmortem daguerreotypes of dead children. —Brenna Ehrlich, Rolling Stone, 4 Dec. 2023

David Cameron—former British prime minister and ghoulish specter of Brexit past—is back. —Raven Smith, Vogue, 15 Nov. 2023

Perhaps the most ghoulish basement was in a police station in Kherson City. —James Verini Paolo Pellegrin, New York Times, 1 Nov. 2023

And the Halloween-eve hair-raiser adds a cackling skeleton to a horror arcade of ghoulish news for EVs. —Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 Oct. 2023

But Freddy’s is invested in making people, not its ghoulish machines, the stars of the show, and suffers for it. —Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 28 Oct. 2023

Pumpkins are known for a ghoulish grin and delicious taste. —Chelsea Hylton, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2023

The pre-Halloween report indeed uncorked one of the year’s most ghoulish surprises, given that few enterprises in the annals of financial markets have inspired the kind of unbridled optimism with which Wall Street has showered the EV giant. —Shawn Tully, Fortune, 19 Oct. 2023

From ice cream floats inspired by Harry Potter to spiderweb brownies, these recipes are simple enough to be made by kids and adults alike — and delicious enough to satisfy the most ghoulish of cravings. —People Staff, Peoplemag, 17 Oct. 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

1835, in the meaning defined at sense 1