ghost \ghost\ g=ost, n. oe. gast, gost, soul, spirit, as.
   g=ast breath, spirit, soul; akin to os. g=est 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.
      1913 webster

            the mighty ghosts of our great harrys rose. --shak.
      1913 webster

            i thought that i had died in sleep,
            and was a blessed ghost.              --coleridge.
      1913 webster

   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.
      1913 webster

   4. a false image formed in a telescope by reflection from the
      surfaces of one or more lenses.
      1913 webster

   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.
      1913 webster

            and he gave up the ghost full softly. --chaucer.
      1913 webster

            jacob . . . yielded up the ghost, and was gathered
            unto his people.                      --gen. xlix.
                                                  33.
      1913 webster
see also:
ghost moth hepialus humuli great swift holy ghost to give up the ghost to yield up the ghost