• (RP) IPA: /fəˈlɔːn/, /fɔː-/
• (GA) IPA: /fɔɹˈlɔɹn/

forlorn (comparative forlorner, superlative forlornest)

1. abandoned#Adjective|Abandoned, deserted#Adjective|deserted, left behind.
   • c. 1588–1593, [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: Printed by Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, OCLC 222241046 ↗, [Act II, scene iii] ↗:

     Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The whilſt their owne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittiful.

2. Miserable, as when lonely after being abandoned.

   Synonyms: forsaken

   • 1766 March, [Oliver Goldsmith], “A Ballad”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: A Tale. Supposed to be Written by Himself, volume I, Salisbury, Wiltshire: Printed by B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], OCLC 938500648 ↗, page 70 ↗:

     For here forlorn and loſt I tread, / With fainting ſteps and ſlow; / Where wilds immeaſurably ſpread, / Seem lengthening as I go.

3. Unlikely to succeed; hopeless.
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, “Dusk”, in A Tale of Two Cities, book III (The Track of a Storm), London: Chapman and Hall, […], OCLC 906152507 ↗, page 226 ↗:

     Well! It is a forlorn hope at the best, and not much the forlorner for being delayed till dark.

• lovelorn

• French: abandonné, perdu
• German: verlassen
• Italian: abbandonato, negletto, derelitto, dimenticato
• Portuguese: abandonado
• Russian: забро́шенный
• Spanish: abandonado

• French: miserable
• German: verlassen
• Italian: miserevole
• Portuguese: desamparado
• Russian: несча́стный
• Spanish: desamparado, desamparada

• French: désespéré
• German: aussichtslos, hoffnungslos
• Spanish: desesperado

forlorn (plural forlorns) (military)

1. A forlorn hope.
2. A member of a forlorn hope.

1. (obsolete) past participle of forlese#English|forlese.