wailing of a ghost; weeping of a departed soul
Formal or literary term for the eerie, sorrowful cries attributed to restless spirits or the dead.
There is a rumor that the wailing of ghosts can be heard from the graveyard late at night.
その怪談には、戦場に漂う鬼哭の描写が繰り返し出てくる。
In that ghost story, descriptions of the weeping of departed souls drifting over the battlefield appear repeatedly.
spine-chilling; hair-raising
Compound of 鬼 (oni, 'demon' or 'ghost') and 哭 (koku, 'wail' or 'weep'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the combination directly conveys the idea of ghostly wailing.