Forlorn

Definition: Forlorn

Forlorn

Adjective

1. Pitiable in circumstances especially through abandonment; "desolate and despairing"; "left forlorn".

2. Marked by or showing hopelessness; "the last forlorn attempt"; "a forlorn cause".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "forlorn" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1050. (references)

Etymology: Forlorn \For*lorn"\, adjective. [OE., past participle of forlesen to lose utterly, Anglo-Saxon forle['o]san (p. p. forloren); pref. for- + le['o]san (in comp.) to lose; compare to Dutch verliezen to lose, German verlieren, Swedish f["o]rlora, Danish forloren, Gothic fraliusan to lose. See For-, and Lo. (references)

Synonyms: Forlorn

Danger

Noun: danger, peril, insecurity, jeopardy, risk, hazard, venture, precariousness, slipperiness; instability; defenselessness; Adjective: exposure; (liability); vulnerability; vulnerable point, heel of Achilles; forlorn hope; (hopelessness).

Adventure, risk, hazard, venture, stake, set at hazard; run the gauntlet; (dare); engage in a forlorn hope.

Dejection

Disconsolate; unconsolable, inconsolable; forlorn, comfortless, desolate, desole, sick at heart; soul sick, heart sick; au desespoir; in despair; lost.

Hopelessness

Airy hopes forlorn hope; gone case, dead duck, gone coon; goner; bad job, bad business; enfant perdu; gloomy horizon, black spots in the horizon; slough of Despond, cave of Despair; immedicabile vulnus.

Adjective: hopeless, desperate, despairing, gone, in despair, au desespoir, forlorn, desolate; inconsolable; (dejected); broken hearted.

Rashness

Donner tete baissee; knock, one's bead against a wall; (be unskillful); rush on destruction; kick against the pricks, tempt Providence, go on a forlorn hope, go on a fool's errand.

Seclusion Exclusion

Estranged; unfrequented; uninhabitable, uninhabited; tenantless; abandoned; deserted, deserted in one's utmost need; unfriended; kithless, friendless, homeless; lorn, forlorn, desolate.

Crosswords: Forlorn

And then they found a little nook in a stable all forlorn, (Mary's Boy Child/Oh My Lord; performing artist: Boney M)

Forlorn River (1937)

Cape Forlorn (1931)

Forlorn River (1926)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Forlorn Hope (reference)

• Forlorn Hope (The Jaded Messiah, Book 1) (reference)

• Forlorn Hope: Battle for Stalingra (reference)

• Forlorn Hope: The Battle of White Bird Canyon and the Beginning of the Nez Perce War (reference)

• Forlorn River [ABRIDGED] (reference)

  (more book examples)

Music

• Forlorn (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Abandoned shacks that might have helped some forlorn souls survive the winter. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

I was very forlorn there, myself

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Expressions using "forlorn": A forlorn hope ♦ engage in a forlorn hope ♦ forlorn hope ♦ go on a forlorn hope. Additional references.

Beginning with "forlorn": forlorn-looking.

Albanian

i mjerë (abject, crummy, desolate, dismal, ill fated, ill-starred, infelicitous, lowlife, miserable, paltry, penurious, pimping, piteous, sorry, unhappy, unlucky, worm), i dëshpëruar (depressed, depressing, desperate, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, downcast, heavyhearted, hopeless, sad), i braktisur (cast off, castaway, derelict, desolate, forgotten, forsaken, godforsaken, lorn, love-lorn, neglected, odd, stand empty, untrodden, waste). (various references)

Arabic 

‏مهجور (abandoned, antiquated, archaic, archaism, bygone, derelict, deserted, desolate, disused, forsaken, in disuse, lonely, lonesome, obsolete, outdated, outmoded, solitary, unfrequented), ‏محروم من (barren), ‏شبه بائس, ‏بائس (afflicted, cheerless, deplorable, desolate, devil, disconsolate, distressed, godforsaken, hapless, heel, helpless, lamentable, measly, miserable, paltry, pathetic, penurious, piteous, pitiful, poor, poverty stricken, ratty, sad, scruffy, seedy, sickly, sordid, squalid, unfortunate, unhappy, woeful, wretched). (various references)

Bulgarian 

окаян (abject, beggarly, deplorable, despicable, miserable, reprobate, squalid, wretched), безнадежден (desperate, hopeless, irredeemable, up the spout), пропаднал (failed, gone, irreclaimable, rotting, unsuccessful), изоставен (abandoned, derelict, desolate, destitute, forsaken, lorn, on the shelf, uncared for, uncultivated, untended). (various references)

Chinese 

絕望 (desperation, hopeless), 惆 (disappointed, vexed), 孤独 (lonely), 俜 . (various references)

Czech

ztracený (irretrievable, lorn, lost), zoufalý (agonized, despairing, desperate, hopeless, sorry), opuštìný (abandoned, derelict, deserted, desolate, destitute, forsaken, friendless, uninhabited), dezolátní. (various references)

Finnish

orpo (orphan, orphan forlorn). (various references)

French

triste, désespéré, délaissé (forsaken), abandonné (forsaken). (various references)

German

verloren (astray, doomed, gone, irrecoverable, irredeemable, lost, prodigal, vain, wasted), verlassen (abandon, abandoned, abandonment, derelict, derelicted, desert, deserted, desertion, desolate, evacuate, exit, forsake, leave, lonely, loose, move away, quit, quitted, quitting, solitary, to derelict, to desert, to evacuate, to forlorn, to leave, untrodden). (various references)

Greek 

έρημοσ (bleak, derelict, desert, desolate, lonesome, waste, wilderness), εγκαταλελειμμένοσ, ελεεινόσ (abject, beggarly, deplorable, disgraceful, haggard, miserable, piteous, pitiable, scrub, scrubby, seedy, sorry, wretched), άθλιοσ (abject, beastly, beggarly, caitiff, miserable, putrid, scullion, squalid, unblessed, Unblest, villainous, wretched). (various references)

Hebrew 

גלמוד (barren, desolate, lonely, lonesome, solitary, sterile). (various references)

Hungarian

kétségbeesett (despairing, desperate, last ditch, last-ditch), elhagyatott (abandoned, deserted, desolate, friendless, gaunt, helpless, lone, lorn, neglected, recluse, secluded, solitary). (various references)

Indonesian

menyedihkan (grievous, pitiable, sadden, tragic). (various references)

Italian

trascurato (careless, inaccurate, lax, neglected, neglectful, negligent, perfunctory, remiss, slovenly), misero (abject, dismal, meager, mean, miserable, narrow, poor, poverty stricken, scanty, spare, squalid, unfortunate, wretched), infelice (accidental, haplessly, infelicitous, lovelorn, miserable, unhappy, unlucky, wretched), abbandonato (abandoned, derelict, deserted, forsaken, lonely, lovelorn, neglected, outcast). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

頼り無い (flaky, helpless, undependable, unreliable, vague), 頼りない (flaky, helpless, undependable, unreliable, vague), 心細い (discouraging, disheartening, helpless, hopeless, lonely, unpromising). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

たよりない (flaky, helpless, undependable, unreliable, vague), こころぼそい (discouraging, disheartening, helpless, hopeless, lonely, unpromising). (various references)

Korean 

고독한 (lonely, solitary). (various references)

Manx

treih (abject, deplorable, doughy, drawn, feeble, fragile, haggard, miserable, pale, pale-faced, pallid, pasty, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, regrettable, rueful, sallow, seedy, sickly, wan, wretched, wretched of thing), treigit (abandoned, derelict, deserted, ditched, forsaken, lorn, love-lorn, stranded), lome-lomarcan, gyn treisht, cailt. (various references)

Pig Latin

orlornfay.(various references)

Portuguese

sem esperança (gone), perdido (absent, absentee, devious, forfeit, graceless, helpless, ill-favored, ill-favoured, lost, missing, out-of-the-way, perdu, strayed, undone, waste), desamparado (defenceless, derelict, destitute, forsaken, friendless, helpless, naked, outcast, unrelieved), abandonado (abandoned, abandonee, alone, bereaved, bereft, comfortless, derelict, forsaken, godforsaken, helpless, lonely, lorn, love-lorn, outcast, sole, stranded, unattended, unattending, uncared-for, unrelieved, unused, waste). (various references)

Romanian

singuratic (desolate, isolated, lone, lone wolf, lonely, loner, one-aloner, recluse, remote, seclusive, secret, single, solitary), pãrãsit (abandoned, depopulated, derelict, deserted, desolate, forsaken, godforsaken, lorn, neglected, rusty), nenorocit (abject, baleful, disastrous, grievous, grub, hapless, lame duck, mean, measly, miser, miserable, pilgarlic, rascal, rotten, sad, scullion, unfortunate, unhappy, wretch, wretched), jalnic (beggarly, deplorable, distressing, doleful, heart rending, lamentable, lamentably, lamenting, mangy, mean, miserable, miserably, mournful, pathetic, pathetically, piteous, pitiable, plaintive, rueful, ruefully, sad, sorrowful, sorry, squalid, woeful, wretched), deznãdãjduit (despairing, despairingly, desperate, despondent, hopeless, irredeemable), desperat (abject, desperado, desperate, desperately, gone, hopeless, madman, pathetic, pathetically, temerarious), dat uitãrii. (various references)

Russian 

в жалком состоянии, жалкий (abject, paltry, pathetic, pimping, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, scrubby, woeful, wretched), покинутый (abandoned, derelict, desolate, forsaken, lorn, love-lorn). (various references)

Scottish

àsran (a forlorn object). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

usamljen (friendless, lone, lonely, lonesome, lorn, solitary, unfrequented), odbačen (cast off, castoff, derelict, dump, off-cast, reject, thrown, turndown), napušteno. (various references)

Spanish

desamparado (abandoned, abandonee, helpless, shelterless, stranded, uncared for, underprivileged), abandonado (abandoned, abandonee, derelict, deserted, desolate, neglected, tackily, uncared for). (various references)

Swedish

hopplös (abysmal, beyond hope, desperate, hopeless, no-win, redemption), övergiven (abandoned, derelict, desolate, forsaken, lorn, orphan, orphane). (various references)

Turkish

terkedilmiş (abandoned, derelict, deserted, desolate, disused, forsaken, lovelorn, vacant), perişan (confused, dead beat, dead end, desolate, distraught, down and out, down at heels, hangdog, out at elbows, poor, prostrate, ruinous, run down, scattered, seedy, shoestring, up the spout, wretched), kimsesiz (all alone, alone, desolate, lone, orphan, outcast, solitary), ümitsiz (drear, dreary, frantic, gloomy, gone, hopeless, past cure, past hope, pathetic), ıssız (desert, deserted, desolate, forsaken, isolated, retired, solitary, stark, unfrequented, uninhabited, void, waste, widowed, wild). (various references)

Ukrainian

зневірений (desperate, hopeless), жалюгідний (abject, beggarly, caitiff, contemptible, deplorable, impoverished, lamentable, mean, miserable, parsimonious, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, queachy, snide, sorry, tatty, woeful, woesome, wretched), покинутий (abandoned, desert, deserted, desolate, forgotten, forsaken, lone, lovelorn, outcast, solitary, waif). (various references)

Vietnamese 

tuyệt vọng bị bỏ rơi, trơ trọi, có vẻ khổ ải, cô độc đìu hiu, bị tước mất đáng thương, đau khổ (broken-hearted, distressful, heart-broken, pained, suffering). (various references)

relictus. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "forlorn": forlorner, forlornest, forlornly, forlornness, forlornnesses. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Forlorn" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: folorn, Foorler, forborn, forelorn, foriorn, forlon, forlorne, forloyn, Frolovna, fulforn, furlorn. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-2 letters: floor.

-3 letters: fool, loof, loon, lorn, nolo, rolf, roof.

-4 letters: fon, for, fro, loo, noo, nor.

-5 letters: lo, no, of, on, or.

+2 letters: forlorner, forlornly.

+3 letters: cornflower, forlornest.

+4 letters: cornflowers, forlornness, trichlorfon.

+5 letters: ferrosilicon, fluorocarbon, retroflexion, trichlorfons.