An old Saxon word equivalent to soul or spirit. It is the translation of the Hebrew nephesh_ and the Greek _pneuma, both meaning "breath," "life," "spirit," the "living principle" (Job 11:20; Jeremiah 15:9; Matthew 27:50; John 19:30). The expression "to give up the ghost" means to die (Lamentations 1:19; Genesis 25:17; 35:29; 49:33; Job 3:11). (see HOLY GHOST.)

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) The spirit; the soul of man.

2. (n.) The disembodied soul; the soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death; an apparition; a specter.

3. (n.) Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea.

4. (n.) A false image formed in a telescope by reflection from the surfaces of one or more lenses.

5. (v. i.) To die; to expire.

6. (v. t.) To appear to or haunt in the form of an apparition.