Emily Dickinson Lexicon

appalling, verbal adj. [see appal, v.] (webplay: faint).

1. Horrible; terrible; awful; alarming; dreadful.
2. Scary; spooky; eerie; ghostly; spectral; supernatural; transcendental.
3. Depressing; unpleasant; grim; morbid; deathly; necessary but distasteful; [fig.] funeral preparation; mortuary; dealing with the interment of corpses; [possible word play on “pall”] pale; discoloring; causing to fade.