/ fəˈlɔːn; NAmE fərˈlɔːrn/ adjective
1.
( of a person ) appearing lonely and unhappy :
She looked so forlorn, standing there in the rain.
2.
( of a place ) not cared for and with no people in it :
Empty houses quickly take on a forlorn look.
3.
unlikely to succeed, come true, etc. :
She waited in the forlorn hope that he would one day come back to her.
His father smiled weakly in a forlorn attempt to reassure him that everything was all right.
► for·lorn·ly adverb
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WORD ORIGIN
Old English forloren depraved, morally abandoned , past participle of forlēosan lose , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch verliezen and German verlieren , and ultimately to for- and lose . Senses 1 and 2 date from the 16th cent.