Ghoul

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ghoul \Ghoul\ (g[=oo]l), n. [Per. gh[=o]l an imaginary sylvan
     demon, supposed to devour men and animals: cf. Ar. gh[=u]l,
     F. goule.]
     An imaginary evil being among Eastern nations, which was
     supposed to feed upon human bodies. [Written also {ghole} .]
     --Moore.


     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ghoul
       n 1: someone who takes bodies from graves and sells them for
            anatomical dissection [syn: {graverobber}, {body
            snatcher}]
       2: an evil spirit or ghost

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  90 Moby Thesaurus words for "ghoul":
     Baba Yaga, Dracula, Frankenstein, Lilith, Wolf-man, afreet,
     ape-man, barghest, body snatcher, bogey, bogeyman, booster,
     bugaboo, bugbear, cacodemon, chicken thief, con man, crook, daeva,
     demon, den of thieves, devil, devil incarnate, dybbuk, embezzler,
     evil genius, evil spirit, fee-faw-fum, fiend, fiend from hell,
     filcher, frightener, ganef, genie, genius, ghost, grafter,
     grave robber, gyre, harpy, hellhound, hellion, hellkite, hobgoblin,
     holy terror, horror, incubus, jewel thief, jinni, jinniyeh, lamia,
     land pirate, land shark, land-grabber, larcener, larcenist, lifter,
     monster, nightmare, ogre, ogress, peculator, petty thief, phantom,
     pilferer, poacher, prowler, purloiner, rakshasa, revenant, robber,
     satan, scarebabe, scarecrow, scarer, scrounger, shedu, shoplifter,
     sneak thief, specter, stealer, succubus, swindler, terror,
     the undead, thief, vampire, werewolf, white-collar thief, yogini
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  GHOUL, n.  A demon addicted to the reprehensible habit of devouring
  the dead.  The existence of ghouls has been disputed by that class of
  controversialists who are more concerned to deprive the world of
  comforting beliefs than to give it anything good in their place.  In
  1640 Father Secchi saw one in a cemetery near Florence and frightened
  it away with the sign of the cross.  He describes it as gifted with
  many heads an an uncommon allowance of limbs, and he saw it in more
  than one place at a time.  The good man was coming away from dinner at
  the time and explains that if he had not been "heavy with eating" he
  would have seized the demon at all hazards.  Atholston relates that a
  ghoul was caught by some sturdy peasants in a churchyard at Sudbury
  and ducked in a horsepond.  (He appears to think that so distinguished
  a criminal should have been ducked in a tank of rosewater.)  The water
  turned at once to blood "and so contynues unto ys daye."  The pond has
  since been bled with a ditch.  As late as the beginning of the
  fourteenth century a ghoul was cornered in the crypt of the cathedral
  at Amiens and the whole population surrounded the place.  Twenty armed
  men with a priest at their head, bearing a crucifix, entered and
  captured the ghoul, which, thinking to escape by the stratagem, had
  transformed itself to the semblance of a well known citizen, but was
  nevertheless hanged, drawn and quartered in the midst of hideous
  popular orgies.  The citizen whose shape the demon had assumed was so
  affected by the sinister occurrence that he never again showed himself
  in Amiens and his fate remains a mystery.