forlornest

Adjective

forlorn (comparative forlorner or more forlorn, superlative forlornest or most forlorn)

1. Abandoned, deserted, left behind.
   • For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.1578–1579, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. [...] Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the...

   Synonyms:

   desolate, forsaken, peopleless, abandoned, derelict, desert, deserted, discarded, dropped, high and dry

2. Pitifully sad, wretched, miserable; lonely, especially from feeling abandoned, deserted, forsaken.
   • For here forlorn and loſt I tread, / With fainting ſteps and ſlow; / Where wilds immeaſurably ſpread, / Seem lengthening as I go.1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “A Ballad”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume I, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 70

   Synonyms:

   despondent, forsaken, lonesome, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen

3. Unlikely to succeed; hopeless.
   • To begin therefore with Traditions, which is your forlorn hope that in the first place we are to set upon: this must I needs tell you before we begin, that you much mistake the matter, if you think that traditions of all sorts promiscuously are struck at by our religion.1625, James Ussher, “Of Traditions”, in An Ansvver to a Challenge Made by a Iesuite in Ireland. Wherein the Iudgment of Antiquity in the Points Questioned, is Truly Delivered, and the Noveltie of the...

   Synonyms:

   despairful, desperate

See all 5 meanings of forlorn