lost to the world

Adjective

lost to the world (not generally comparable, comparative more lost to the world, superlative most lost to the world)

1. (idiomatic, not comparable, usually) Of a thing, event, etc., no longer used or available; unknown to or forgotten by everyone.
   • [I]t seems this Method is of late grown out of Practice, and so like the melting of Marble and the painting of Glass, ’tis laid aside among the various useful Arts which History tells us are lost to the World.1727, Daniel Defoe, chapter 17, in The History of the Devil
   • In those days there was a word "trashy," now almost lost to the world. My dear Aunt Charlotte used that epithet when, in her feminine way, she swore at people she did not like.1898, H. G. Wells, “Thoughts on Cheapness and My Aunt Charlotte”, in Certain Personal Matters
2. (idiomatic, not comparable, usually) Of a person, no longer existent, deceased.
   • He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by his death, one of England’s greatest writers is lost to the world.1870, Epitaph on the tomb of Charles Dickens in Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey
   • A host of great writers, musicians and actors were lost to the world in 2015, including Leonard Nimoy, Terry Pratchett, Cilla Black and BB King.2016 January 1, Martin Chilton, “Culture stars who died in 2015”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 01 Oct 2018
3. (idiomatic, not comparable, usually) Of a person, physically located in a remote place where one is unnoticed or incommunicado.
   • Miss Ambient, whom I also saw at intervals during the time that followed, has, with her embroideries and her attitudes, her necromantic glances and strange intuitions, retired to a Sisterhood, where, as I am told, she is deeply immured and quite lost to the world.1884, Henry James, chapter 1, in The Author of Beltraffio
   • We have trekked the veldt and been lost to the world for many months at a time1920, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 4, in The Great Impersonation
4. (idiomatic, not comparable, usually) Of a person, mentally focused on one's own thoughts or feelings, or on some task, to such a degree that one is unaware of other people or of one's surroundings; unconscious.
   • When he reached the manse he went to his study and took down a bulky volume. […] He remained immersed in its mazes until dawn, struck a new trail of speculation and pursued it like a sleuth hound for the next week, utterly lost to the world, his parish and his family.1919, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 14, in Rainbow Valley
   • Bill had relapsed into a sort of waking dream. He sat frowning sombrely, lost to the world.1921, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 19, in Indiscretions of Archie