haunted

1. 1
   adjective

   Of a place, regularly visited by one or more ghosts.

   Tourists pay good money to spend a night in the most haunted castle in the country.

   Locals avoid the abandoned mill, convinced it is haunted after dark.

   Note

   A ghost story that takes degrees: a castle can be more haunted than the inn down the road, and tourism trades on the most haunted castle in the country. Alongside more and most, the one-word superlative hauntedest also exists. Because the adjective comes from the past participle of haunt, a sentence like the hotel was haunted can be read either as a description of the place or as a passive verb.

2. 2
   adjective

   Showing a feeling of being deeply disturbed or troubled.

   The survivor spoke in a quiet, haunted voice about the night of the fire.

   Years of war had left the veteran with a haunted expression.

   Similartormented, troubled, anguished, harrowed

   Oppositeuntroubled, serene, carefree

   Note

   The trouble has moved from the mind to the face. This sense modifies what shows a disturbance, such as an expression or a voice, and it usually stands before the noun with no by-phrase. Compare the "obsessed" meaning, which names what does the haunting. Here the cause is left unsaid, and the listener is meant to infer it from the look alone.

3. 3
   adjective

   Continually preoccupied or tormented by an idea, threat, or similar concern.

   She remained haunted by the fear that she had forgotten something important.

   The detective was haunted by the one case he never managed to solve.

   Similartormented, troubled, plagued, obsessed, preoccupied

   Note

   Here the ghost is a thought. What haunts is a memory, a fear or an unsolved case, and it is usually named with by: a soldier haunted by the memories of combat. Without the by-phrase the sentence feels unfinished, because this sense needs to say what keeps coming back. It describes the state of the person, not how that state shows on them.

4. 4
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of haunt.

   Strange noises haunted the abandoned mill every winter.

   The decision haunted him long after he had made it.

   Note

   One regular -ed spelling covers both jobs. It is the simple past in strange noises haunted the mill, and the participle after have or be in a ghost has haunted the mansion. The passive is where the verb shades into the adjective. In the hotel was haunted by a spirit, the line between an action and a description of the place is hard to draw.

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