gewgaw 
The schcphenl vndyr the fokle syngythe well wythe his 
gygawe the pype. Prompt. Pari\, p. 168. 
3. A Jew's-harp. [Prov. Eng. and Scotch.] 
II. a. Showy, without substantial use or 
worth. 
The gewgaw robes of pomp and pride 
In some dark corner thrown aside. 
Churchill, The Ghost, Iv. 
Seeing his jiewgaw castle shine, 
New as his title, built hist year. 
Tennyson, Maud. 
gewgawed (gu'gad), a. [< gewgaw + -cd2.] 
Dressed out or adorned with gewgaws or showy 
trifles. 
Before some new Madonna gaily decked, 
Tinselled and gewgawed. 
D. G. Kossetti, A Last Confession. 
gey, adv. See gay*. [Scotch.] 
geyser (gi'ser), n. [Also written geysir; < Icel. 
Geysir, "the name of a famous hot spring [the 
Great Geyser] in Iceland. Foreign writers 
often use geysir as an appellative, but the only 
Icel. words for hot springs are hver [hverr'] (a 
cauldron, hot well) and laug (a hot bath [a 
bath]). The present Geysir is never men- 
tioned in old writers, and it seems from a rec- 
ord in the Icel. annals that the great hot wells 
in the neighbourhood of Haukadale were due to 
the volcanic eruptions of 1294, when old hot 
springs disappeared, and those now existing 
came up. . . . The name Geysir (= gusher) 
must be old, as the inflexive -ir is hardly used 
but in obsolete words ; ... it was probably 
borrowed from some older hot spring" (Cleas- 
by and Vigfusson) ; < geysa, gush, a secon- 
dary form, < gjosa, gush: see gush.~\ A spout- 
ing hot spring; aTiot spring which projects 
water, either periodically or irregularly, to some 
height in the air. The Great Geyser of Iceland has 
been long known, and has given the name to phenomena 
of this character. This geyser spouts very irregularly, and 
sometimes throws a large volume of water to a height of 
Geyscrite. 
Giant Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, United States. 
nearly 100 feet. The height of the column is probably 
diminishing, as some old estimates make it much greater. 
There are numerous geysers in the Yellowstone region of 
the United States, some of which throw water to an eleva- 
tion of 200 feet or more, and also on the North Island of 
New Zealand ; and in the Napa valley of California are 
boiling springs that have been improperly called geysers. 
(See boiling spring, under boiling.) The true theory of the 
action of the Great Geyser of Iceland, and hence of gey- 
sers in general, was first established by Bunsen. The ejec- 
tion of the water is caused by explosive action, due to the 
heating of the water, under pressure, in the lower part of 
Silicious Cone of the Beer 
e National Park, 
the geyser-tube, to considerably above the boiling-point. 
The heated water acquires after a time elastic force suffi- 
cient to overcome the weight of the superincumbent wa- 
ter ; and the relief from compression during the ascent is 
so great that steam is generated rapidly, and to such an 
amount as to eject violently from the tube a great quantity 
of the water. 
geyseric (gi'ser-ik), a. [< geyser + -ic.~] Per- 
taining to or of the nature of a geyser: as, gey- 
seric phenomena. 
2505 
geyserite (gi'ser-It), . [< geyser + -ite 2 . ] The 
variety of opaline silica deposited about tlic 
orifices of gey- 
sers. It occurs 
white or grayish, 
porous, in stalac- 
titic, filamentous, 
or cauliflower- 
like forms. 
ghaist (gast), n. 
A Scotch form of 
ghost. 
I ... hillocks, stanes, and bushes kenn'd aye 
Frae ghaists an' witches. 
Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook. 
ghark (gark), . [E. Ind.] The tree, Aquilaria 
Agallocha, which yields the eaglewood. 
gharrial (gar'i-al), . [Hind, ghariyal.] Same 
as gavial. 
gharry (gar'i), n. ; pi. gharries (-iz). [Also 
ghorry, gharee; repr. Hind, gen (a rough r), 
Beng., Mahratta, Telugu, Canarese, etc., gadi 
(cerebral d), a carriage, a cart.] A native 
East Indian cart or carriage, in its typical form, 
drawn by oxen or ponies. In special uses the va- 
rious kinds are usually distinguished by a prefix: as, 
palki-gharry, palanquin-carriage ; sej-gharry, chaise ; rel- 
gharry, railway-carriage. 
The common ghorry ... is rarely, if ever, kept by an 
European, but may be seen plying for hire in various parts 
of Calcutta. 
T. Williamson, East India Vade Mecum, I. 329. 
My husband was to have met us with a two-horse gharee. 
Trevelyan, Dawk Bungaloo, p. 384. 
ghastt (gast), v. t. [Also written, more correctly, 
gast 2 , q. v.] Same as gasfi. 
Ghasted by the noise I made, 
Full suddenly he fled. Shak., Lear, ii. 1. 
These men vppon their submission were so pined away 
for want of foode, and so ghasted with feare, . . . that 
they looked rather like to ghosts than men. 
Stow, Queen Elizabeth, an. 1586. 
ghast (gast), a. [Poet. abbr. of ghastly.~\ Hav- 
ing a ghastly appearance ; weird. 
1st Lady. How ghast a train ! 
2d Lady. Sure this should be some splendid burial. 
Keats, Otho the Great, v. 5. 
How doth the wide and melancholy earth 
Gather her hills around us, grey and ghast t 
Mrs. Browning, Drama of Exile. 
ghastfult (gast'ful), a. [Also written, more 
correctly, gastful, < ME. gastful, fearful (in pas- 
sive, later in active sense), < gast, a., pp. of 
gasten, gast, v. (of. Sc. gast, n., fright), + -ful; 
equiv. to ghastly, gastly, q. v.] 1 . Causing fear ; 
terrifying; dreadful. 
Musidorus . . . casting a gastful countenance upon 
him, as if he would conjure some strange spirits, he cried 
unto him. Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, i. 
I tell no lie, so ghastful grew my name, 
That it alone discomfited an host. Mir.forMags. 
2. Feeling fear ; afraid ; fearful. 
Who is a ferdful man, and of gastful herte? Go he. 
WycUf, Deut. xx. 8 (Purv.). 
ghastfullyt (gast'ful-i), adv. [Also written, 
more correctly, gastfully.~\ In aghastful man- 
ner; dreadfully; frightfully, 
ghastfulnesst (gast'ful-nes), n. Fearfulness; 
sense of fear. 
Struck with terror and a kind of irksome gastfulness, 
he lighted a candle and vainly searched. 
Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, iv. 
ghastliness (gast'li-nes), n. [Also written, 
more correctly, gastliness.] The state orquality 
of being ghastly ; frightful or dreadful aspect ; 
deathlikeness: as, the ghastliness of his ap- 
pearance. 
Let ghastlinesse 
And drery horror dim the chearfnll light, 
To make the image of true heavinesse. 
Spenser, Daphnaida, 1. 327. 
What jealous, fearful Pallor doth surprise 
Thy cheeks, what deadly ghastlyness thine eyes ? 
J. Beaumont, Psyche, xiii. 24. 
The tree lay along the ground, and was wholly converted 
into a mass of diseased splendor, which threw a ghastli- 
ness around. Hawthorne, Sketches from Memory. 
ghastly (gast'li), a." [Now spelled ghastly, but 
the proper spelling, etymologically, is gastly, 
< ME. gastly, terrible, < AS. gwstlic, terrible 
(found only once, and open to question as_to 
the precise sense), < gaistan (pp. *gcested, *gieitt, 
ME. gast), frighten, terrify, T -lie, E. -lyl : see 
gast 2 , ghast, ?'.] 1. Dreadful or deathly in as- 
pect or look; deathlike; haggard; shocking. 
Each trembling leafe and whistling wind they heare, 
As ghastly bug does greatly them affeare. 
Spenser, F. Q., II. iii. 20. 
Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail. 
Milton, f. L., vi. 368. 
ghat 
Then welcome, Death ; thy gnxtla furo, said she, 
Is fairer than the Visage of tills sin. 
J. Beaumont, Psyche, ii. 211. 
The cold and ghfixltit nmi.n ^lancin^ through bars of 
clciud at a wreck just sinking.'. 
t'li'irlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, i. 
Goths, wars, famines, and plague succeed each other in 
ghastly procession. I). G. Mitchell, Wet Days. 
2. Deathly in import or suggestion ; morally 
dreadful or shocking. 
Thy vntimely death must pay thy Mothers Debts, and 
her guiltlesse crime must bee thy gastly curse. 
Greene, Pandosto. 
= Syn. Ghastly, Grim, Grisly, Haggard, Hideout; pale, 
wan, cadaverous, frightful. Hideous may apply to sound, 
as a hideous noise ; the others not. All in modern use ap- 
ply primarily to sight and secondarily to mental percep- 
tion, except haggard, which connotes sight only. Ghastly, 
as it is most commonly used, means deathly pale, death- 
like, referring to the countenance, but its signification has 
been extended to denote anything that is suggestive of 
death, or even repulsive and shocking, as Milton's " man- 
gled with ghastly wounds" (P. L., vi. 368), "a ghastly 
smile" (Hilton, P. L., ii. 846), a ghastly jest. Grim char- 
acterizes a rigid cast of countenance, indicating a severe, 
stern, or even ruthless disposition. Grisly refers to the 
whole form or aspect, especially when dark, forbidding, 
or such as to inspire terror. Haggard adds to the idea of 
paleness of countenance that of being wasted by famine 
or protracted mental agony. Hideous, used of looks, ap- 
plies to the whole form or scene, and means simply repul- 
sive, extremely unpleasant to see : as, hideous features ; a 
hideous scene. See pale?. 
Her face was so ghastly that it could not be recognized. 
Macaulay. 
Grim-visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front. 
Shak., Bich. III., i. 1. 
My grisly countenance made others fly; 
None durst come near, for fear of sudden death. 
Shak., 1 Hen. VI., i. 4. 
She . . . kissed her poor quivering lips and eyelids, and 
laid her young cheek against the pale and haggard one. 
George Eliot, Felix Holt, 1. 
Ingratitude ! thou marble-hearted fiend, 
More hideous when thou show'st thee in a child 
Than the sea-monster ! Shak., Lear, I. 4. 
ghastly (gast'li), adv. [< ghastly, a.] In a 
ghastly manner; dreadfully; hideously; with a 
deathlike aspect. 
Having a great while thrown her countenance ghastly 
about her, as if she had called all the powers of the world 
to be witness of her wretched estate. 
Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, ii. 
Staring full ghastly like a strangled man. 
Shak., 2 Hen. VI., iii. 2. 
The Captain looked ghastly upon him, and said, Then, 
Sir, get you out of my Tent, for you have done me a very 
ill Office. HoweU, Letters, I. iv. 28. 
ghastnesst (gast'nes), n. [< ME. gastnes, gast- 
nesse, terror, < gast, pp. of gasten, frighten, gast, 
-t- -nes, -ness.] Amazement; terror; fright; fear. 
Ne drede thou with sodeyn gaxtnesse. 
Wyclif, Prov. iii. 25 (Oxf.). 
Look you pale, mistress? 
Do you perceive the ghastliest of her eye ? 
Shak., Othello, v. 1. 
ghat, ghaut (gat), . [Also written gaut, repr. 
Hind, ghat.'] 1. In India, a pass of descent 
from a mountain; a mountain-pass; hence, a 
range or chain of hills or mountains. The two 
principal mountain-ranges of southern Hindustan are spe- 
cifically named the Western and Eastern Ghats. 
2. In India, a path of descent, landing-place, or 
stairway to a river, generally having at the sum- 
Ghoosla Ghat, Benares. 
mit a temple, pagoda, or place of rest and recre- 
ation. Ghats abound especially along the Ganges, the 
most important being at Benares; the motive of their 
erection was to facilitate bathing in the sacred water, and 
drawing it for religious purposes. 
I wrote this remembering, in long, long distant days, 
such a ghaut or river-stair at Calcutta. 
Thackeray, Roundabout Papers, xviii. 
Between the banks is sweeping up the sand-laden wind, 
concealing from the huddled boats the temples and the 
'that across the river, the bridge that spans it, and the 
sky itself. P. Robinson, Under the Sun, p. 63. 
