perdu (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Hidden; lost to view.

   • He should lie perdue who is to walk the round.

2. (obsolete) Lost (from a soldier given a mission he is not expected to return from).
   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 7,

     Among certain grizzled sea-gossips of the gun decks and forecastle went a rumor perdue […]

3. (obsolete) Accustomed to, or employed in, desperate enterprises; reckless; hopeless.
   • c. 1616–1619 (first performance)​, John Fletcher, “The Loyal Svbiect”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, OCLC 3083972 ↗, Act 1, scene 1:

     a perdue captain

perdu (plural perdus)

1. One placed on watch, or in ambush.
2. A soldier sent on a forlorn hope.
   • 1605, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Lear, IV. vii. 35:

     To watch, poor perdu, / With this thin helm?