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Webster 1913 Edition


Aghast

A-gast′

or

A-ghast′

,
Verb.
T.
To affright; to terrify.
[Obs.]
Chaucer. Spenser.

A-ghast′

,
Verb.
T.
See
Agast
,
Verb.
T.
[Obs.]

A-ghast′

,
Adj.
&
p.
p.
[OE.
agast
,
agasted
, p. p. of
agasten
to terrify, fr. AS. pref.
ā-
(cf. Goth.
us-
, G.
er-
, orig. meaning
out
) +
g[GREEK]stan
to terrify, torment: cf. Goth.
usgaisjan
to terrify, primitively to fix, to root to the spot with terror; akin to L.
haerere
to stick fast, cling. See
Gaze
,
Hesitate
.]
Terrified; struck with amazement; showing signs of terror or horror.
Aghast
he waked; and, starting from his bed,
Cold sweat in clammy drops his limbs o’erspread.
Dryden.
The commissioners read and stood
aghast
.
Macaulay.

Definition 2024


aghast

aghast

English

Adjective

aghast (comparative more aghast, superlative most aghast)

  1. Terrified; struck with amazement; showing signs of terror or horror.
    • 1902, The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle.
      And while the revellers stood aghast at the fury of the man, one more wicked or, it may be, more drunken than the rest, cried out that they should put the hounds upon her.
    • 1985, Les Misérables, the song "Red and Black"
      I am agog! I am aghast! Is Marius in love at last?
    • 2013, Daniel Taylor, Rickie Lambert's debut goal gives England victory over Scotland (in The Guardian, 14 August 2013)
      Hart, for one, will not remember the night for Lambert's heroics. Morrison, not closed down quickly enough, struck his shot well but England's No1 will be aghast at the way it struck his gloves then skidded off his knees and into the net.

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