Definition of "phantasmal" adjective comparative more phantasmal , superlative most phantasmal
Of or pertaining to , or having the characteristics of , a phantasm (“something seen but having no physical reality ”); imaginary , unreal . quotations
Quotations Mr . Audley , the chairman , was an amiable , elderly man who still wore Gladstone collars ; he was a kind of symbol of all that phantasmal and yet fixed society .
1910 October 1, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Queer Feet”, in The Innocence of Father Brown, London, New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, published 1911, page 80
Her secrets : old feather fans , tassled dancecards , powdered with musk , a gaud of amber beads in her locked drawer . […] Phantasmal mirth , folded away : muskperfumed .
1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], part I [Telemachia], page 10