Archaic or dialectal form meaning ghastly, horrible, or terrifying in appearance.
An older variant spelling of 'ghastly,' from Middle English 'gastlich' via Old English 'gast' (spirit, ghost) plus the suffix '-lich' (modern '-ly'), originally meaning 'spiritual' then 'terrifying.'
The spelling 'gashly' reveals how the 'gh' sound in words like 'ghost' and 'ghastly' was once pronounced more directly, and this variant spelling persisted in some dialects into modern times.
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