aghast

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
10
Words With Friends
10
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/əˈɡæst/ (US)
See all 3 pronunciations
/əˈɡæst/ (US) · /əˈɡɑːst/ · /əˈɡast/

Definition of aghast

1 sense · 1 part of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Terrified; struck with amazement; showing signs of terror or horror.
    “I was aghast when the incident unfolded in front of me.”
    “Betraide by fortune and ſuſpitious loue, Threatned with frowning wrath and iealouſie, Surpriz’d with feare and hideous reuenge, I ſtand agaſt: […]”
    “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?”
    “We sat at a long table with a huge salmon on a platter in the center, prepared Szechuan style. Dad sat at one end of the table, and regaled all present with his stories. In the middle of one convoluted yarn, he rose and went around to the salmon in the center of the table. Using his fingers, he dug an eyeball out of the fish, popped it in his mouth and swallowed it whole as we looked on, aghast. “A real delicacy,” he said, with a boyish smirk.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English agast, agasted, past participle of agasten (“to terrify”), from Old English a- (compare with Gothic 𐌿𐍃- (us-), German er-, originally meaning "out") + gæstan (“to terrify, torment”):…

See full etymology

From Middle English agast, agasted, past participle of agasten (“to terrify”), from Old English a- (compare with Gothic 𐌿𐍃- (us-), German er-, originally meaning "out") + gæstan (“to terrify, torment”): compare Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usgaisjan, “to terrify”, literally “to fix, to root to the spot with terror”); akin to Latin haerere (“to stick fast, cling”). By surface analysis, a- + ghast/gast. See gaze.

Anagrams of aghast

2 plays · some not in Scrabble

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