forlorn

[ fawr-lawrn ]

/ fɔrˈlɔrn /

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adjective

desolate or dreary; unhappy or miserable, as in feeling, condition, or appearance.

lonely and sad; forsaken.

expressive of hopelessness; despairing: forlorn glances.

bereft; destitute: forlorn of comfort.

Nearby words

Origin of forlorn

before 1150; Middle English foreloren (past participle of forlesen to lose completely), Old English forloren (past participle of forlēosan); cognate with Old High German firliosan (German verlieren), Gothic fraliusan. See for-, lorn

SYNONYMS FOR forlorn

1. pitiful, pitiable, helpless, woebegone, comfortless. 2. alone, lost, solitary. 4. deprived.

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR forlorn ON THESAURUS.COM

ANTONYMS FOR forlorn

1. happy. 2. accompanied.

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Related formsfor·lorn·ly, adverbfor·lorn·ness, nounun·for·lorn, adjective

Synonym study

2. See desolate.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for forlorn

Today, a forlorn air hangs over Santa Maria degli Angeli, like a graveyard where ghosts are buried.
The Venetian Nuns Who Ditched Their Habits for High Fashion|Liza Foreman|September 14, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The roads are forlorn, the landscape barren, the forests menacing.
Holocaust Horrors Haunt the Films ‘Ida’ And ‘The German Doctor’|Jack Schwartz|May 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He could not shake the image of that forlorn, mistreated horse.
Central Park’s Carriages Saved This Horse|Michael Daly|April 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He looked as forlorn as might be expected of a retired cop who finds himself the one behind bars.
Ex-Cop’s Shooting of Texting Moviegoer Ends in Tragedy|Michael Daly|January 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST

The collapse of the Soviet Empire more than 20 years ago left it, for a time, orphaned and forlorn.
The French Boss-Nappers’ Last Stand|Christopher Dickey|January 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Both yards were forlorn, uneven, and malodorous, from the heaps of offal and rubbish lying under the hot sun.
Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume I (of 2)|Isabella L. Bird
There is a fearless advance, and your skirmishers are your forlorn hope.
Battle Studies|Charles-Jean-Jacques-Joseph Ardant du Picq
I tell you I'm the very man to help a forlorn orphan who doesn't know what to do with a fortune.
Miss Million's Maid|Bertha Ruck
The great Mazzarini Palace looks sad and forlorn; nor do we mean to linger much longer on a scene whence the actors have departed.
The Daltons, Volume II (of II)|Charles James Lever
Never have I looked upon such lonely penury, and yet there, even there, these forlorn women kept their souls alive.
The Little Manx Nation - 1891|Hall Caine

British Dictionary definitions for forlorn

forlorn

/ (fəˈlɔːn) /

adjective

miserable, wretched, or cheerless; desolate

deserted; forsaken

(postpositive foll by of) destitute; bereftforlorn of hope

desperatethe last forlorn attempt

Derived Formsforlornly, adverbforlornness, noun

Word Origin for forlorn

Old English forloren lost, from forlēosan to lose; related to Old Saxon farliosan, Gothic fraliusan, Greek luein to release

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for forlorn

forlorn

adj.

mid-12c., forloren "disgraced, depraved," past participle of obsolete forlesan "be deprived of, lose, abandon," from Old English forleosan "to lose, abandon, let go; destroy, ruin," from for- "completely" + leosan "to lose" (see lose). In the Mercian hymns, Latin perditionis is glossed by Old English forlorenisse.

Sense of "forsaken, abandoned" is 1530s; that of "wretched, miserable" first recorded 1580s. A common Germanic compound (cf. Old Saxon farilosan, Old Frisian urliasa, Middle Dutch verliesen, Dutch verliezen, Old High German virliosan, German verlieren, Gothic fraliusan "to lose").

Commonly in forlorn hope (1570s), which is a partial translation of Dutch verloren hoop, in which hoop means "troop, band," literally "heap," and the sense of the whole phrase is of a suicide mission. The phrase is usually used incorrectly in English, and the misuse has colored the sense of forlorn. Related: Forlornly; forlornness.

forlorn

adjective

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Nearby words

Origin of forlorn

Synonym study

Examples from the Web for forlorn

forlorn

adjective

Word Origin for forlorn

forlorn