lost

alternative los' · alternative loss

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of lose

comparative loster · comparative more lost · superlative lostest · superlative most lost · alternative los' · alternative loss

1. Having wandered from, or unable to find, the way.

   The children were soon lost in the forest.

2. In an unknown location; unable to be found.

   Deep beneath the ocean, the Titanic was lost to the world.

3. Not perceptible to the senses; no longer visible.

   an island lost in a fog; a person lost in a crowd

4. Parted with; no longer held or possessed.

   a lost limb; lost honour

5. Not employed or enjoyed; thrown away; employed ineffectually; wasted; squandered.

   a lost day; a lost opportunity or benefit; no time should be lost

6. Ruined or destroyed, either physically or morally; past help or hope.

   a ship lost at sea; a woman lost to virtue; a lost soul

   1 more example

   They struck me also as being of surpassing interest as representing, probably with studious accuracy, the last rites of the dead as practised among an utterly lost people, and even then I thought how envious some antiquarian friends of my own at Cambridge would be if ever I found an opportunity of describing these wonderful remains to them.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

7. Hardened beyond sensibility or recovery; alienated; insensible.

   lost to shame; lost to all sense of honour

8. Occupied with, or under the influence of, something, so as not to notice external things.

   to be lost in thought