From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
ghost
n 1: a mental representation of some haunting experience; "he
looked like he had seen a ghost"; "it aroused specters
from his past" [syn: shade, spook, wraith,
specter, spectre]
2: a writer who gives the credit of authorship to someone else
[syn: ghostwriter]
3: the visible disembodied soul of a dead person
4: a suggestion of some quality; "there was a touch of sarcasm
in his tone"; "he detected a ghost of a smile on her face"
[syn: touch, trace]
v 1: move like a ghost; "The masked men ghosted across the
moonlit yard"
2: haunt like a ghost; pursue; "Fear of illness haunts her"
[syn: haunt, obsess]
3: write for someone else; "How many books have you
ghostwritten so far?" [syn: ghostwrite]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Ghost \Ghost\ (g[=o]st), n. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS.
g[=a]st breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g[=e]st spirit,
soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The spirit; the soul of man. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Then gives her grieved ghost thus to lament.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
2. The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased
person; a spirit appearing after death; an apparition; a
specter.
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The mighty ghosts of our great Harrys rose. --Shak.
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I thought that I had died in sleep,
And was a blessed ghost. --Coleridge.
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3. Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a
phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the
ghost of an idea.
[1913 Webster]
Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the
floor. --Poe.
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4. A false image formed in a telescope by reflection from the
surfaces of one or more lenses.
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Ghost moth (Zool.), a large European moth ({Hepialus
humuli}); so called from the white color of the male, and
the peculiar hovering flight; -- called also {great
swift}.
Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit; the Paraclete; the Comforter;
(Theol.) the third person in the Trinity.
To give up the ghost or To yield up the ghost, to die; to
expire.
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And he gave up the ghost full softly. --Chaucer.
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Jacob . . . yielded up the ghost, and was gathered
unto his people. --Gen. xlix.
33.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Ghost \Ghost\, v. i.
To die; to expire. [Obs.] --Sir P. Sidney.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Ghost \Ghost\, v. t.
To appear to or haunt in the form of an apparition. [Obs.]
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
ghost
<chat> (Or "zombie") The image of a user's session on IRC
and similar systems, left when the session has been terminated
(properly or, often, improperly) but the server (or the
network at large) believes the connection is still active and
belongs to a real user.
Compare clonebot.
(1997-04-07)