Ghastly vs Plain - What's the difference?

ghastly | plain | Related terms |

Ghastly is a related term of plain.

As adjectives the difference between ghastly and plain

is that ghastly is like a ghost in appearance; deathlike; pale; pallid; dismal while plain is .

As adverbs the difference between ghastly and plain

is that ghastly is in a ghastly manner while plain is (colloquial) simply.

As a noun plain is

(rare|poetic) a lamentation or plain can be an expanse of land with relatively low relief.

As a verb plain is

to lament, bewail or plain can be (obsolete|transitive) to plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.

ghastly

English

Adjective

(er)

Like a ghost in appearance; deathlike; pale; pallid; dismal.

*(Samuel Taylor Coleridge) (1772-1834)

*:Each turned his face with a ghastly pang.

* (1800-1859)

*:His face was so ghastly that it could scarcely be recognized.

Horrifyingly shocking.

*(John Milton) (1608-1674)

*:Mangled with ghastly wounds through plate and mail.

*:They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. Otherwise his pelt would not have been so perfect. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.

Extremely bad.

Synonyms

* lurid

Adverb

(-)

In a ghastly manner.

He turned ghastly pale on hearing the news.

plain

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) pleyn, playn, (etyl) plain, plein, from (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)

* Bible, (w) xl. 4

The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain .

Simple.

# Ordinary; lacking adornment or ornamentation; unembellished.

#* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author=(Henry Petroski)

, magazine=(American Scientist), title= The Evolution of Eyeglasses , passage=The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone, essentially what today we might term a frameless magnifying glass or plain glass paperweight.}}

# Of just one colour; lacking a pattern.

# Simple in habits or qualities; unsophisticated, not exceptional, ordinary.

#* (Henry Hammond) (1605-1660)

plain yet pious Christians

#* (Abraham Lincoln) (1809-1865)

the plain people

# (label) Having only few ingredients, or no additional ingredients or seasonings; not elaborate, without toppings or extras.

# (label) Containing no extended or nonprinting characters (especially in plain text).

Obvious.

# Evident to one's senses or reason; manifest, clear, unmistakable.

#* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. XV, ''Practical — Devotional

In fact, by excommunication or persuasion, by impetuosity of driving or adroitness in leading, , it is now becoming plain everywhere, is a man that generally remains master at last.

# Downright; total, unmistakable (as intensifier).

Open.

# Honest and without deception; candid, open; blunt.

#* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

an honest mind, and plain

# Clear; unencumbered; equal; fair.

#* Felton

Our troops beat an army in plain fight.

Not unusually beautiful; unattractive.

Synonyms

* no-frills * normal * ordinary * simple * unadorned * unseasoned * See also

Antonyms

* bells and whistles * decorative * exotic * fancy * ornate

Derived terms

* plain and simple * plain as a pikestaff * plain as the nose on one's face * plain chocolate * plain clothes * plain-dealing * plain film * plain flour * plain-hearted * plain Jane * plain-laid * plain line * plain paper * plain sailing * plain song/plainsong * plain-spoken * plain text * plain-vanilla * plain weave * plain-winged * plainly * plainness

Adverb

(-)

(colloquial) Simply

It was just plain stupid.

I plain forgot.

Etymology 2

From (etyl) plainer, pleiner, variant of (etyl) and (etyl) pleindre, plaindre, from (etyl) plangere, present active infinitive of .

Alternative forms

* plein

Noun

(en noun)

(rare, poetic) A lamentation.

* 1815 , Sir , The Lady of the Isles , Canto IV, part IX

The warrior-threat, the infant's plain ,

The mother's screams, were heard in vain;

Verb

(en verb)

To lament, bewail.

to plain a loss

* Bishop Joseph Hall

Thy mother could thee for thy cradle set / Her husband's rusty iron corselet; / Whose jargling sound might rock her babe to rest, / That never plain' d of his uneasy nest.

* , More Poems , XXV, lines 5-9

Then came I crying, and to-day,

With heavier cause to plain ,

Depart I into death away,

Not to be born again.

Etymology 3

From (etyl) plain, from (etyl) .

Noun

(wikipedia plain) (en noun)

An expanse of land with relatively low relief.

* Milton

Him the Ammonite / Worshipped in Rabba and her watery plain .

* 1961 , J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the ''Sophistês'' of Plato . In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 467.

For Plato the life of the philosopher is a life of struggle towards the goal of knowledge, towards “searching the heavens and measuring the plains , in all places seeking the nature of everything as a whole”

A battlefield.

(Arbuthnot)

* Shakespeare

Lead forth my soldiers to the plain .

(obsolete) A .

Synonyms

* flatlands * high plain * plateau * prairie * steppe

Antonyms

* cliff * gorge * mountain * vale

Derived terms

* abyssal plain * alluvial plain * flood plain/floodplain * gibber plain * Great Plains * peneplain * Plains * plain wanderer * salt plain * the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain

Verb

(en verb)

(obsolete) To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.

* Wither

We would rake Europe rather, plain the East.

(obsolete) To make plain or manifest; to explain.

* Shakespeare

What's dumb in show, I'll plain in speech.

Statistics

Anagrams

* English degree adverbs ----