FORLORN

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does forlorn mean? 

• FORLORN (adjective)
  The adjective FORLORN has 1 sense:

1. marked by or showing hopelessness

  Familiarity information: FORLORN used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORLORN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by or showing hopelessness

Context example:

a forlorn cause

Similar:

hopeless (without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success)

 Context examples 

I don't feel so forlorn, and will try to bear it if it comes.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“I often think,” said she, “that there is nothing so bad as parting with one's friends. One seems so forlorn without them.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

This light was my forlorn hope: I must gain it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Oh, I might have been much the better for her, if I had had a better heart! exclaimed the girl, with most forlorn regret; for she was always good to me!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With the newcomers hopeless and forlorn, and the old team worn out by twenty-five hundred miles of continuous trail, the outlook was anything but bright.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

But White Fang sat on his haunches and ki-yi'd and ki-yi'd, a forlorn and pitiable little figure in the midst of the man-animals.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

You know, you and I were quite forlorn at first.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Me! a poor, helpless, forlorn widow, unfit for anything, my spirits quite broke down; what could I do with a girl at her time of life?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It had been a very happy fortnight, and forlorn must be the sinking from it into the common course of Hartfield days.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I hope, from the bottom of my heart, he won't keep her waiting much longer, for it is quite grievous to see her look so ill and forlorn.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)