forlorn

Pluralforlorns

1. 1
   sad and lonelyadjective

   Pitifully sad and wretched; lonely and miserable, especially from feeling abandoned or forsaken.

   After his wife left, he wandered the empty house, forlorn and unable to sleep.

   The forlorn expression on the boy's face made her hand him the last cookie.

   Similardejected, despondent, downcast, disconsolate, lonesome

   Oppositecheerful, happy

   Note

   The inner side of being left behind: the misery of someone who feels abandoned. The nursery rhyme The House that Jack Built keeps an old pattern alive in the maiden all forlorn, with all meaning "utterly" and the adjective placed after its noun. It also takes -er and -est, as in Owen Meredith's Thought's forlornest wells, alongside more forlorn and most forlorn. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • The nursery rhyme The House that Jack Built contains 'the maiden all forlorn', with the adjective following its noun. digital.library.mcgill.ca
   • The intensifier 'all' means 'utterly' or 'completely'. en.wiktionary.org
   • 'Forlorn' has the comparative and superlative forms 'forlorner' and 'forlornest', alongside 'more forlorn' and 'most forlorn'. en.wiktionary.org
   • Owen Meredith wrote the words 'Thought's forlornest wells'. en.wiktionary.org
2. 2
   desertedadjective

   Abandoned or deserted; left behind by others.

   A few forlorn shacks were all that remained of the old mining town.

   Boarded windows and a shuttered diner gave the main street a forlorn look.

   Similarabandoned, deserted, forsaken, desolate, derelict

   Note

   The sense closest to the word's origin: Old English forloren was the past participle of a verb meaning "to lose", so to be forlorn was first to be lost or given up. Spenser could still write of minds forlorn of fortune and of hope, bereft of both at once. In modern use it often describes places that look left behind, as when a closed cafe gives a station a forlorn air. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • 'Forlorn' derives from Old English 'forloren', the past participle of 'forlēosan', meaning 'to lose'. en.wiktionary.org
   • The word's ancestral meaning was 'lost', supporting the connection with being lost or given up. en.wiktionary.org
   • Spenser wrote of minds deprived of both fortune and hope. gutenberg.org
3. 3
   hopelessadjective

   Unlikely to succeed; hopeless.

   Rescuers kept digging through the night in the forlorn hope of finding more survivors.

   The team made a forlorn effort to tie the game in the final seconds.

   UsageUsually a forlorn hope; a forlorn attempt or effort is also common.

   Similardesperate

   Oppositepromising

   Note

   Its usual partner is hope: a forlorn hope is one kept alive against the odds, as when Mowbray Thomson's The Story of Cawnpore (1859) tells of a woman cherishing the forlorn hope that her missing husband still lived in captivity. The same two words also name the advance party of soldiers, so context decides between a hope and a troop. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Mowbray Thomson wrote The Story of Cawnpore, first published in 1859. upload.wikimedia.org
   • The book describes a woman cherishing the forlorn hope that her missing husband remained alive in captivity. upload.wikimedia.org
   • Forlorn hope also names an advance party of soldiers. en.wiktionary.org

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