forlorn
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: fər-lôrnʹ
enpr: fôr-lôrnʹ
ipa: /fəˈlɔːn/
ipa: /fɔːˈlɔːn/
ipa: /fɚˈlɔɹn/
ipa: /fɔɹˈlɔɹn/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)n
Forms: form: forlorner
form: more forlorn
form: forlornest
form: most forlorn
form: forlorne
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.
Senses: examples: text: For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 67:
synonyms: word: desolate
word: forsaken
word: peopleless
word: abandoned
word: derelict
word: deserted
word: desolate
word: discarded
word: dropped
word: forlorn
word: forsaken
word: high and dry
word: left behind
word: orphaned
glosses: Abandoned, deserted, left behind.
examples: text: For here forlorn and loſt I tread, / With fainting ſteps and ſlow; / Where wilds immeaſurably ſpread, / Seem lengthening as I go.
ref: 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “A Ballad”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume I, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 70:
text: This is the Maiden all forlorn, That milked the Cow with the crumpled Horn[.]
ref: 1784, The House that Jack Built, page 8:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: Sweet 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.”
ref: 1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's Way
text: 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.
ref: 1921, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest, London: The Bodley Head, →OCLC; republished Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1925, →OCLC, page 67:
synonyms: word: despondent
word: forsaken
word: lonesome
word: atrabiliary
word: atrabilious
word: blitheless
word: dispirited
word: blue
word: bummed out
word: chapfallen
word: cheerless
word: chopfallen
word: crestfallen
word: cut up
word: damp
word: dejected
word: depressed
word: despondent
word: disgruntled
word: disconsolate
word: disheartened
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: down
word: down in the dumps
word: down in the mouth
word: downcast
word: downhearted
word: downsome
word: dull
word: elegiac
word: elegious
word: forlorn
word: gloomy
word: glum
word: grief-stricken
word: grieving
word: heavy-hearted
word: heartsore
word: heartsick
word: inconsolable
word: infelicitous
word: jawfallen
word: joyless
word: lachrymose
word: lamentful
word: low
word: low-spirited
word: lugubrious
word: lumpish
word: melancholic
word: melancholy
word: miserable
word: moody
word: mopey
word: morose
word: mournful
word: passionate
word: plaintive
word: querulous
word: sad
word: saddened
word: saturnine
word: shattered
word: solemn
word: sombre
word: sorrowful
word: sorrow-ridden
word: sorrowsome
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: threnetic
word: threnetical
word: triste
word: tristful
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unconsolable
word: unhappy
word: unlively
word: wistful
word: woe
word: woebegone
word: woeful
word: wretched
word: cheerless
word: comfortless
word: bleak
word: dark
word: depressing
word: desolate
word: dire
word: disconsolate
word: dismal
word: doleful
word: dolesome
word: drear
word: drearisome
word: dreary
word: dreich
word: forlorn
word: gayless
word: gray
word: gloomsome
word: gloomy
word: grim
word: joyless
word: lack-laughter
word: lugubrious
word: melancholy
word: mirthless
word: miserable
word: no joke
word: saturnine
word: solemn
word: somber
word: sombre
word: spiritless
word: sullen
word: sunless
word: uncheerful
word: uncheery
word: unhappy
word: unmerry
word: wintry
word: woeful
glosses: Pitifully sad, wretched, miserable; lonely, especially from feeling abandoned, deserted, forsaken.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: Well! It is a forlorn hope at the best, and not much the forlorner for being delayed till dark.
ref: 1859, Charles Dickens, “Dusk”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Track of a Storm), page 226:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 42:
synonyms: despairful
desperate
glosses: Unlikely to succeed; hopeless.
Derived terms: forlornity
forlornling
forlornly
forlornness
unforlorn
Related terms: forlorn hope
lovelorn