forlorn en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- fər-lôrnʹ
- /fəˈlɔːn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /fɔːˈlɔːn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (Australia) audio
- fôr-lôrnʹ
- (General-American) audio
- /fɚˈlɔɹn/ (General-American)
- /fɔɹˈlɔɹn/ (General-American)
Etymology
From Middle English forlorn, forloren, from Old English forloren (past participle of forlēosan (“to lose”)), from Proto-Germanic *fraluzanaz (“lost”), past participle of Proto-Germanic *fraleusaną (“to lose”), equivalent to for- + lorn. Cognate with West Frisian ferlern (“lost”), Saterland Frisian ferlädden (“lost”), Dutch verloren (“lost”), German Low German verloren (“lost”), German verloren (“lost”), Swedish förlorad (“lost”). See further at lese/leese, lorn.
Meanings
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Abandoned, deserted, left behind.
More join us at Colwall and at the lovely station at Great Malvern, although the place is in need of some TLC nowadays. The ornate canopy supports are overdue a repaint, and the closed cafe gives the place a forlorn air.
2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in RAIL, page 67:For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.
1578–1579, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. [...] Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the Next Page Maketh Mention, London: Imprinted for VVilliam Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591, →OCLC:Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The vvhilſt their ovvne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittifull.
c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], signature D3, verso:There are few sights that leave a railway lover more wistful than a desolate railway viaduct no longer carrying tracks. As with tunnels, so much effort was made to conquer the landscape, yet so many now stand forlorn.
2025 November 26, Tim Dunn, “Lost and found: historical assets”, in RAIL, number 1049, page 55:
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Pitifully sad, wretched, miserable; lonely, especially from feeling abandoned, deserted, forsaken.
Come, stack arms, Men! Pile on the rails; stir up the campfire bright; no matter if the canteen fails, we'll make a roaring night. Here Shenandoah brawls along, there burly Blue Ridge echoes strong, to swell the Brigade's rousing song, of “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” We see him now — the old slouched hat cocked o’er his eye askew, the shrewd, dry smile, the speech so pat, so calm, so blunt, so true. The “Blue-Light Elder” knows ’em well; says he, “That’s Banks — he’s fond of shell; Lord save his soul! We’ll give him” — well, that’s “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” Silence! Ground arms! Kneel all! Caps off! Old Blue Light’s going to pray. Strangle the fool that dares to scoff: Attention! 'Tis his way. Appealing from his native sod in forma pauperis to God: “Lay bare thine arm, stretch forth thy rod! Amen!” That’s “Stonewall’s Way.” He’s in the saddle now. Fall in! Steady, the whole brigade! Hill’s at the ford, cut off — we’ll win his way out, ball and blade! What matter if our shoes are worn? What matter if our feet are torn? “Quick step! We’re with him before the morn!” That’s “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” The sun’s bright lances rout the mists of morning, and by George! Here’s Longstreet struggling in the lists, hemmed in an ugly gorge. Pope and his Yankees, whipped before, “Bay’nets and grape!” hear Stonewall roar; “Charge, Stuart! Pay off Ashby’s score!” in “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.” Ah! Maiden, wait and watch and yearn for news of Stonewall’s band! Ah! Widow read with eyes that burn that ring upon thy hand. Ah! Wife, sew on, pray on, hope on! Thy life shall not be all forlorn. The foe had better ne’er been born that gets in “Stonewall’s Way.”
1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's WaySweet are familiar songs, tho' Music dips / Her hollow shell in Thought's forlornest wells: / And sweet, tho' sad, the sound of midnight bells, / When the oped casement with the night-rain drips.
1859, Owen Meredith [pseudonym; Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton], “The Wanderer”, in Poems by Owen Meredith. The Wanderer and Clytemnestra, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, prologue, part I, stanza 1, page 17:The condition of the besieged, in the mean time, was forlorn in the extreme; not so much from want of food, though their supplies were scanty, as from excessive toil and exposure.
1857, William H[ickling] Prescott, “War with France. 1557.”, in History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, new edition, volume I, London: G[eorge] Routledge & Co., Farringdon Street, page 125:For here forlorn and loſt I tread, / With fainting ſteps and ſlow; / Where wilds immeaſurably ſpread, / Seem lengthening as I go.
1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “A Ballad”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume I, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 70:Sophia broke down here. Even at this moment she was subconsciously comparing her rendering of the part of the forlorn bride with Miss Marie Lohr's.
1921, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest, London: The Bodley Head, →OCLC; republished Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1925, →OCLC, page 67:This is the Maiden all forlorn, That milked the Cow with the crumpled Horn[.]
1784, The House that Jack Built, page 8:
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Unlikely to succeed; hopeless.
To begin therefore with Traditions, which is your forlorn hope that in the first place we are to set upon: this must I needs tell you before we begin, that you much mistake the matter, if you think that traditions of all sorts promiscuously are struck at by our religion.
1625, James Ussher, “Of Traditions”, in An Ansvver to a Challenge Made by a Iesuite in Ireland. Wherein the Iudgment of Antiquity in the Points Questioned, is Truly Delivered, and the Noveltie of the Now Romish Doctrine Plainely Discovered by Iames Vssher bishop of Meath. Whereunto is Added a Sermon Preached before His Majesty at Wansted, by the Same Author, London: Printed [by Humphrey Lownes] for the Society of Stationers, →OCLC; republished in C[harles] R[ichard] Elrington, editor, The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, D.D. Lord Archbishop of Armagh, and Primate of All Ireland, volume III, Dublin: Hodges & Smith; London: Whittaker & Co., [1831], →OCLC, page 41:Now he rushed to the platform edge carrying a full fire bucket, in a forlorn attempt to douse the flames as the now brightly burning wagon rolled past.
2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:Mrs. Blair had lost her husband, who was a cavalry officer, in Cabool, at the memorable Khyber Pass; but as no precise tidings of his death had every been received, she cherished the forlorn hope that he was still living in captivity among the Affghans, and that some day it would be her happiness yet to be reunited with him, even on earth.
1859, Mowbray Thomson, chapter VII, in The Story of Cawnpore, London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, publisher in ordinary to Her Majesty, →OCLC, pages 119–120:Well! It is a forlorn hope at the best, and not much the forlorner for being delayed till dark.
1859, Charles Dickens, “Dusk”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Track of a Storm), page 226:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| forlorner | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| more forlorn | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| forlorne | alternative | lexicographic | |
| forlornest | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| most forlorn | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Deriveds
forlornness · unforlorn · forlornity · forlornling · forlornly
Relateds
Synonyms
cheerless · morose · moody · despondent · dropped · saturnine · sullen · grief-stricken · unlively · disconsolate · melancholy · peopleless · desperate · cut up · grieving · uncheerful · dejected · passionate · mopey · doleful · dismal · heartsick · saturnine · deserted · woe · triste · sorrow-ridden · spiritless · threnetic · gray · dismal · miserable · high and dry · dreary · bummed out · chopfallen · dark · gayless · discarded · inconsolable · joyless · threnetical · down in the mouth · Plutonian · disgruntled · wretched · desert · sunless · joyless · blue · wistful · lumpish · downsome · gloomy · low-spirited · cheerless · dolesome · desolate · dire · dolesome · uncheery · down · depressing · desolate · ruthful · dull · unconsolable · gloomsome · solemn · desolate · sullen · low · mournful · dispirited · orphaned · despondent · jawfallen · sad · disheartened · Plutonic · damp · lachrymose · mirthless · gloomy · heavy-hearted · crestfallen · downcast · dreich · drear · somber · sorrowsome · tristful · forsaken · morose · wintry · infelicitous · spiritless · woeful · disconsolate · abandoned · melancholic · doleful · derelict · unmerry · bleak · lonesome · atrabilious · chapfallen · woebegone · uncheerful · grim · sombre · depressed · uncheery · atrabiliary · forlorn · forlorn · lack-laughter · querulous · saddened · down in the dumps · lugubrious · forsaken · elegiac · lamentful · miserable · heartsore · glum · unhappy · plaintive · comfortless · shattered · forsaken · forlorn · solemn · sorrowful · despairful · no joke · unhappy · sombre · left behind · woeful · blitheless · melancholy · drearisome · elegious · lugubrious · downhearted
Translations (89)
nl miserabel (miserable) · uk марний (unlikely to succeed) · fr misérable (miserable) · nl verlaten (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · fi epätoivoinen (unlikely to succeed) · ru безнадёжный (unlikely to succeed) · ko 버림받다 (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · el εγκαταλελειμμένος (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · grc λιπερνής (miserable) · nl hopeloos (miserable) · uk відчайдушний (unlikely to succeed) · it negletto (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · pl samotny (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · de verlassen (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · el έρημος (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · mk са́мотен (miserable) · cmn 孤獨 /孤独 (miserable) · fr perdu (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · mi pākatokato (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · mk о́ставен (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · pl opuszczony (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · ko 쓸쓸하다 (miserable) · cmn 被遺棄的 /被遗弃的 (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · fr abandonné (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · ar مَنْبُوذ (miserable) · es desesperado (unlikely to succeed) · el έρημος (miserable) · ru жа́лкий (miserable) · ru несча́стный (miserable) · pt abandonado (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · hu elhagyatott (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · hu nyomorult (miserable) · mk не́среќен (miserable) · cmn 不可能成功的 (unlikely to succeed) · de aussichtslos (unlikely to succeed) · ru поки́нутый (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · mi pākatokato (miserable) · te అనాథ (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · gl abandonado (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · bg самотен (miserable) · it abbandonato (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · bg изоставен (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · mi pūkatokato (miserable) · cs osamělý (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · fi hylätty (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · cs marný (unlikely to succeed) · el άθλιος (miserable) · el ελεεινός (miserable) · mk безна́дежен (unlikely to succeed) · ms kesepian (miserable) · ga dearóil (miserable) · bg отчаян (miserable) · cmn 孤苦伶仃 (miserable) · pl stracony (unlikely to succeed) · pl beznadziejny (miserable) · cs opuštěný (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · oc abandonat (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · cs zoufalý (miserable) · sv förtvivlad (miserable) · nl verloren (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · uk покинутий (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · uk безнадійний (unlikely to succeed) · sv fåfäng (unlikely to succeed) · pl beznadziejny (unlikely to succeed) · fi hylätty (miserable) · es abandonado (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · uk нещасний (miserable) · ru забро́шенный (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · ca desesperat (unlikely to succeed) · pt desamparado (miserable) · fr désespéré (unlikely to succeed) · es desamparado (miserable) · cs nešťastný (miserable) · pl zagubiony (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · cs zoufalý (unlikely to succeed) · de hoffnungslos (unlikely to succeed) · pl niepocieszony (miserable) · mk на́пуштен (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · sv övergiven (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · it derelitto (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · cmn 悲慘 /悲惨 (miserable) · it miserevole (miserable) · de verlassen (miserable) · mi mahue (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · ccc ishakatiskale (miserable) · uk забутий (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · it dimenticato (abandoned, deserted, left behind) · uk самотній (miserable) · ru одино́кий (miserable)