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

Unless someone else as ghoulish as Aunt Gladys comes along between now and Halloween, get ready for a sea of adults wearing costumes punctuated by bright orange wigs, lips smeared haphazardly with lipstick and enormous eyeglasses. —Pamela McClintock, HollywoodReporter, 12 Aug. 2025

Many dressed as ghoulish priests and nuns, their faces painted white and black. —Ed Masley, AZCentral.com, 12 Aug. 2025

Madigan's ghoulish persona appears to be a cross between a Golden Girl and Pennywise the clown, but is actually a witch. —Brian Truitt, USA Today, 9 Aug. 2025

But a good time in enviable vacation spots is guaranteed, with ghoulish demises for many principal figures here served up like caviar on sashimi. —Dennis Harvey, Variety, 7 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1835, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for ghoulish

• foolish