lost

1. 1
   did not keepverb

   Simple past and past participle of lose, used as a verb in any of its meanings ('she lost her keys'; 'the game was lost') rather than to describe a noun.

   He lost his wallet on the train yesterday.

   The team has lost three matches in a row.

   UsageThe verb form is lost; the noun is loss: we lost the game, a painful loss.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty for lose: the simple past (he lost) and the participle after have or be (has lost, was lost). Every adjective sense grows from the participle, from being astray to being ruined past help.

2. 2
   adjective

   Located somewhere unknown and unable to be found.

   The painting was thought to be lost for decades before it reappeared.

   A lost manuscript turned up in the library archives last year.

   Similarmissing, mislaid, misplaced, vanished, gone

3. 3
   can't find wayadjective

   Unable to find the way, or having wandered from a known route.

   The hikers realized they were lost when the trail vanished into the trees.

   She felt hopelessly lost in the unfamiliar city, unable to find her hotel.

   UsageUsually after get or be: we got lost. Degree words fit: hopelessly lost, a little lost, more lost.

   Similardisoriented, adrift

4. 4
   adjective

   No longer held or possessed; given up or parted with.

   He spent years grieving his lost youth and the freedom it once gave him.

   Decades after the war, older people in the town still spoke bitterly of the lost farmland across the border.

5. 5
   confusedadjective

   Bewildered and uncertain how to act, or unable to grasp, keep up with or manage something.

   The instructions jumped from step two to step six, and most of us were lost.

   Without the routine of her old job, she felt lost for the first few months of retirement.

   UsageLost without means unable to manage: I'd be lost without you.

   Similarconfused, bewildered, baffled, adrift

   Note

   The figurative cousin of losing your way: a student lost in a lecture has lost the thread of the argument, not the building.

6. 6
   past helpadjective

   Destroyed, dead or ruined in character, beyond hope of rescue, recovery or redemption ('a lost soul'; 'lost to all shame').

   When the ship struck the rocks in the storm, the captain knew at once that she was lost and ordered everyone into the boats.

   She regarded him as a lost soul, far past any hope of redemption.

   UsageCommon in set phrases: a lost soul, a lost cause, lost at sea.

   Note

   The ruin can fall on a ship, a soul or a whole nation. Rider Haggard's She (1886–87) writes of "an utterly lost people," a nation whose funeral customs survive only for antiquarians to marvel at. In a lost soul the ruin is moral, and in a ship lost at sea it is physical. Only the context tells you which is meant. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • She is by H. Rider Haggard and was first serialized in 1886–87. en.wikipedia.org
   • The novel contains the exact phrase “an utterly lost people,” in its narrator's description of ancient funeral customs. gutenberg.org
   • The passage describes surviving depictions of funeral customs and imagines antiquarians' interest in them. gutenberg.org
7. 7
   fully focusedadjective

   So deeply occupied with or absorbed by something that outside things go unnoticed.

   Completely lost in the music, she didn't hear anyone call her name.

   He was lost in daydreams while the lecture droned on around him.

   UsageUsually lost in something: lost in thought, lost in a book, lost in the music.

   Similarabsorbed, engrossed, immersed, rapt, preoccupied

   Note

   The construction is lost in plus whatever holds the mind: lost in thought, in music, in a daydream. The same frame appears in the "out of sight" meaning (an island lost in a fog), and the test is what disappears. There the thing vanishes from view; here the outside world vanishes from the person.

8. 8
   thrown awayadjective

   Wasted, squandered, or used to no good effect, rather than put to use or enjoyed.

   He regretted the lost years he had spent at a dead-end job.

   The lost opportunity to invest early ended up costing them dearly.

   Similarwasted, misspent

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