ghosting

Etymology

ghost + -ing

noun

1. The practice of hiding prisoners from inspection from (possibly hostile) outside inspectors.
2. (electronics, television) The blurry appearance of a television picture resulting from interference caused by multipath reception.
3. (computing) Ghost imaging.
4. A form of identity theft in which someone steals the identity, and sometimes even the role within society, of a specific dead person (the "ghost") who is not widely known to be deceased.
5. (computing) A problem with a keyboard where certain simultaneous keypresses trigger the action of a further key that was not in fact pressed.
   Examine your matrix map, and make sure that no three keystrokes form a rectangle with a fourth keystroke that will cause you problems. This prevents both ghosting and blocking. 2011, John St. Clair, Project Arcade: Build Your Own Arcade Machine, page 218
6. (colloquial) A method of ending a personal relationship by stopping any contact with the other party and not providing an explanation.
   Stories of ghosting often deal with broken-off romances, but it's worth mentioning that friend ghosting is real, and sometimes necessary.
7. The phenomenon of the writing on one side of a page in a notebook being partly visible on the other side.

verb

1. present participle and gerund of ghost