Definition of "aghast"
aghast
adjective
comparative more aghast, superlative most aghast
Terrified; struck with amazement; showing signs of terror or horror.
Quotations
Betraide by fortune and ſuſpitious loue,Threatned with frowning wrath and iealouſie,Surpriz’d with feare and hideous reuenge,I ſtand agaſt: […]
c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act III, scene ii
We sat at a long table with a huge salmon on a platter in the center, prepared Szechuan style. Dad sat at one end of the table, and regaled all present with his stories. In the middle of one convoluted yarn, he rose and went around to the salmon in the center of the table. Using his fingers, he dug an eyeball out of the fish, popped it in his mouth and swallowed it whole as we looked on, aghast. “A real delicacy,” he said, with a boyish smirk.
2003, Brian Herbert, “Xanadu”, in Dreamer of Dune, New York: Tom Doherty Associates, page 259