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

There are elegant formulas that sit well under makeup, that don’t have a ghoulish white tint or cause your skincare to pill. —Morgan Fargo, Vogue, 20 Feb. 2025

To Michael Hirsch, the desecration of hundreds of graves was a shanda, a shame, a ghoulish crime. —Maria Cramer, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2025

Show me Ed Gein displaying a human-skin lampshade with a full ear on it — ghoulish and silly is the goal! —Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 24 Jan. 2025

Halloween is around the corner, and contrary to popular belief, the spookiest day of the year isn’t just about ghoulish fun and dressing up in costumes for the kiddos. —Jené Luciani Sena, Fox News, 1 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1835, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for ghoulish

• foolish