wraithlike

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English wraith

Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der.

Proto-Germanic *līkąder.

Proto-Germanic *-līkaz

Proto-West Germanic *-līk

Old English -līċ

Middle English -like

English -like

English wraithlike

From wraith + -like.

Adjective

wraithlike (comparative more wraithlike, superlative most wraithlike)

1. Resembling a wraith; ghostly.
   • 1902, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Bush Studies (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 28:

     Beyond the hut a clump of myalls loomed spectral and wraith-like, and round them a gang of crows cawed noisily, irreverent of the great silence.

   • 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 8:

     The sight of them [the Grampians] as we crossed the viaduct over the North Esk I am not likely to forget. After a night of snow, they hung wraith-like across the sky, exquisitely beautiful in the greyness of winter dawn.

   • 2007 January 20, Matt Zoller Seitz, “Easy Does It, the Next Stop Is a Killer. No, It Really Is.”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 January 2010:

     Mr. Bean’s version plays like the murderous hero of “Crime and Punishment” reimagined as a wraithlike stalker.