forlorn hope
Americannoun
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a perilous or desperate enterprise.
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a vain hope.
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Obsolete. a group of soldiers assigned to perform some unusually dangerous service.
noun
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a hopeless or desperate enterprise
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a faint hope
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obsolete a group of soldiers assigned to an extremely dangerous duty
Etymology
Origin of forlorn hope
1530–40; folk-etymological alteration of Dutch verloren hoop literally, lost troop
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Remember 2013, when West Brom striker Peter Odemwingie got in his car and drove 120 miles from Birmingham to London in the forlorn hope he would sign for Queens Park Rangers.
From BBC • Feb. 3, 2026
“America is rich and fat and very, very noticeable in this world. It is a forlorn hope that we should be left alone.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 22, 2025
The London Times notes, ‘The prospect of reaching the summit seems now much less a forlorn hope than it did.’
From Scientific American • Aug. 1, 2022
Then, a forlorn hope: maybe the replacement battery shipped empty?
From The Verge • May 21, 2022
Breaking waves that moonlight and forlorn hope fashioned into illusion?
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
