Word.ws English Dictionary

forlorn hope

Syllables: for·lorn hopeUK/fəˌlɔːn ˈhəʊp//fɔɹˌlɔɹn ˈhoʊp/

forlorn hope noun: a small troop of soldiers picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack; a storming party.

forlorn hope: a small troop of soldiers picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack; a storming party
Image: William Barnes Wollen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

forlorn hope (plural forlorn hopes)

  1. (archaic) A small troop of soldiers picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack; a storming party.
    • Ped[ro]. Stand to your guard ſir, all the devils extant / Are broke upon us, like a cloud of thunder; / There are more women, marching hitherward, / In reſcue of my Miſtris, then ere turn’d taile / At Sturbridge Faire; and I believe, as fiery. / Jaq[ues]. The forlorn-hope’s led by a tanners wife, /...c. 1609–1622?, John Fletcher, “The Womans Prize: Or, The Tamer Tamed”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act II...
    • For Books and fine Pictures are the Forlorn-hope, as it were, of the Catholick Cloyſters and Convents; and as there are few of the Monks that underſtand either, upon any great Emergency they ſooner chuſe to convert theſe Moveables into Money, than to melt down their ſuperfluous Hoards of Plate...1726, J[ohn Durant] Breval, “Franche Comte”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Europe: Relating Chiefly to the History, Antiquities and Geography, of Those Countries though which the Author has...
  2. (archaic, obsolete) In the plural form forlorn hopes: the soldiers collectively making up such a troop; (by extension) a group of reckless adventurers.
    • [T]o make this realme a praye to al venturers, al ſpoylers, all ſnaphanſes, all forlornehopes, all cormerauntes, all reuenours of the worlde, that wyll inuade this realme, is to ſaye, thou poſſeſſyoner of any landes of this realme, of what degree ſo euer thou be, fro the higheſt to the loweſt...1539 April 9, Cuthbert Tunstall, A Sermon of Cuthbert Tonstall, Bishop of Durham, Preached on Palm Sunday, 1539, before King Henry VIII. […], London: […] [J. Compton, […]] for T[homas] Rodd, […]...
  3. (broadly) Any dangerous or hopeless venture.
    • From the tete-a-tete with Mr. Thomas Tough, ſhe goes to her deſk again, and begins to write "With what appetite ſhe may," in the forlorn hope of procuring from her bookſeller part of the money ſhe has been compelled to promiſe to the ſaid Thomas's peremptory demands, on behalf of Mr. Humphrey...1794, Charlotte Smith, chapter XI, in The Banished Man. […], volume II, London: […] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, (successors to Mr. [Thomas] Cadell) […], →OCLC, page 226
    • These cases form the forlorn hope in surgery; all saved are snatched from nearly certain death. [From the Medico-Chirurgical Transactions.]1841 June 23, Rutherford Alcock, “On Injuries of the Joints”, in Jerome V[an] C[rowninsfield] Smith, editor, The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, volume XXIV, number 20, Boston, Mass.: D. Clapp...

forlorn hope meaning in Tamil

forlorn hope in Tamil

பாசிப்படை

Examples of forlorn hope in a sentence

  • [Benedict] Arnold, therefore, as usual with him, led the forlorn hope, marching about one hundred yards before the main body.1880, Isaac N[ewton] Arnold, “Assault upon Quebec”, in The Life of Benedict Arnold; His Patriotism and His Treason, Chicago, Ill.: Jansen...
  • The first of these was young Templeton, the leader of the forlorn hope, but he was at once shot dead.1885, G[eorge] B[ruce] Malleson, “Bharatpúr”, in The Decisive Battles of India from 1746 to 1849 inclusive. […], 2nd edition, London...
  • He wanted to glorify the leaders of forlorn hopes, the mad lovers, the giants that fought under stress and strain, amid terror and tragedy, making life crackle with the strength of their endeavor.1908 September – 1909 September, Jack London, chapter XIV, in Martin Eden, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published September 1909...
  • After exploding a mine, a forlorn hope of fifty English troops rushed out from one of the tunnels and made good their footing upon the ramparts.1922, George Edmundson, “From the End of the Twelve Years’ Truce to the Peace of Munster, 1621–1648. The Stadholderate of Frederick Henry...

Forms of forlorn hope

pluralforlorn hopes

Origin of forlorn hope

Sense 1 (“troop of soldiers picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack”) is a mistranslation of Dutch verloren hoop (literally “lost troop”): verloren (“lost”, adjective) + hoop (“(obsolete) unit of soldiers, contingent; heap, pile, stack”), mistaking the latter word for the homograph hoop (“hope”). Verloren is the past participle of verliezen (“to lose (possession); to be defeated, to lose (a game)”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *fraleusaną (“to cease to have, lose”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“before, in front; first”) + *lewH- (“to cut, sever; to separate; to loosen; to lose”)), while hoop is ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haupaz (“a crowd, throng; a heap, pile”), from Proto-Indo-European *kouHp-nó- or *keHup-. Sense 2 (“dangerous or hopeless venture”) is either an extension of the meaning of sense 1, or from the literal meaning of the words forlorn and hope.

Words that rhyme with forlorn hope

14 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about forlorn hope

What does forlorn hope mean?
Forlorn hope means a small troop of soldiers picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack; a storming party.
What is forlorn hope in Tamil?
Forlorn hope in Tamil is பாசிப்படை. See Forlorn hope meaning in Tamil.
How do you use forlorn hope in a sentence?
[Benedict] Arnold, therefore, as usual with him, led the forlorn hope, marching about one hundred yards before the main body.
What part of speech is forlorn hope?
Forlorn hope is a noun.
How do you pronounce forlorn hope?
Forlorn hope is pronounced /fəˌlɔːn ˈhəʊp/ (UK).
What is the plural of forlorn hope?
The plural of forlorn hope is forlorn hopes.

Words near forlorn hope in the dictionary

  1. forlonging
  2. forlongs
  3. forloppin
  4. forlore
  5. forlorn
  6. forlorn hope
  7. forlorn hopes
  8. forlorne
  9. forlorner
  10. forlornest
  11. forlornities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: forlorn hope (page history and authors); forlorn hope (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-forlorn hope.oga.

Cite this entry: “forlorn hope.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/forlorn_hope. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.