lost

[lawst, lost] /lɔst, lɒst/
adjective
1.
no longer possessed or retained:
lost friends.
2.
no longer to be found:
lost articles.
3.
having gone astray or missed the way; bewildered as to place, direction, etc.:
lost children.
4.
not used to good purpose, as opportunities, time, or labor; wasted:
a lost advantage.
5.
being something that someone has failed to win:
a lost prize.
6.
ending in or attended with defeat:
a lost battle.
7.
destroyed or ruined:
lost ships.
8.
preoccupied; rapt:
He seems lost in thought.
9.
distracted; distraught; desperate; hopeless:
the lost look of a man trapped and afraid.
verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
10.
simple past tense and past participle of lose.
Idioms
11.
get lost, Slang.
  1. to absent oneself:
    I think I'll get lost before an argument starts.
  2. to stop being a nuisance:
    If they call again, tell them to get lost.
12.
lost to,
  1. no longer belonging to.
  2. no longer possible or open to:
    The opportunity was lost to him.
  3. insensible to:
    lost to all sense of duty.
Related forms
unlost, adjective
Synonyms
1. forfeited, gone, missing. 3. confused, perplexed. 4. squandered.
Antonyms
1. found.

lose

[looz] /luz/
verb (used with object), lost, losing.
1.
to come to be without (something in one's possession or care), through accident, theft, etc., so that there is little or no prospect of recovery:
I'm sure I've merely misplaced my hat, not lost it.
2.
to fail inadvertently to retain (something) in such a way that it cannot be immediately recovered:
I just lost a dime under this sofa.
3.
to suffer the deprivation of:
to lose one's job; to lose one's life.
4.
to be bereaved of by death:
to lose a sister.
5.
to fail to keep, preserve, or maintain:
to lose one's balance; to lose one's figure.
6.
(of a clock or watch) to run slower by:
The watch loses three minutes a day.
7.
to give up; forfeit the possession of:
to lose a fortune at the gaming table.
8.
to get rid of:
to lose one's fear of the dark; to lose weight.
9.
to bring to destruction or ruin (usually used passively):
Ship and crew were lost.
10.
to condemn to hell; damn.
11.
to have slip from sight, hearing, attention, etc.:
to lose him in the crowd.
12.
to stray from or become ignorant of (one's way, directions, etc.):
to lose one's bearings.
13.
to leave far behind in a pursuit, race, etc.; outstrip:
She managed to lose the other runners on the final lap of the race.
14.
to use to no purpose; waste:
to lose time in waiting.
15.
to fail to have, get, catch, etc.; miss:
to lose a bargain.
16.
to fail to win (a prize, stake, etc.):
to lose a bet.
17.
to be defeated in (a game, lawsuit, battle, etc.):
He has lost very few cases in his career as a lawyer.
18.
to cause the loss of:
The delay lost the battle for them.
19.
to let (oneself) go astray, miss the way, etc.:
We lost ourselves in the woods.
20.
to allow (oneself) to become absorbed or engrossed in something and oblivious to all else:
I had lost myself in thought.
21.
(of a physician) to fail to preserve the life of (a patient).
22.
(of a woman) to fail to be delivered of (a live baby) because of miscarriage, complications in childbirth, etc.
verb (used without object), lost, losing.
23.
to suffer loss:
to lose on a contract.
24.
to suffer defeat or fail to win, as in a contest, race, or game:
We played well, but we lost.
25.
to depreciate in effectiveness or in some other essential quality:
a classic that loses in translation.
26.
(of a clock, watch, etc.) to run slow.
Verb phrases
27.
lose out, to suffer defeat or loss; fail to obtain something desired:
He got through the preliminaries, but lost out in the finals.
Idioms
28.
lose face. face (def 51).
Origin
before 900; Middle English losen, Old English -lēosan; replacing Middle English lesen, itself also reflecting Old English -lēosan; cognate with German verlieren, Gothic fraliusan to lose. See loss
Related forms
relose, verb (used with object), relost, relosing.
Can be confused
loose, loosen, lose, loss.
Examples from the web for lost
  • If your driver license has been lost, stolen or destroyed, you may be eligible to obtain a replacement online.
  • Whether the ancestors to modern snakes lost their limbs at sea or on land has been the subject of debate for over a century.
  • Instead of gaining genes, they have lost many of them over time.
  • The city was burned, the inhabitants killed or exiled, and much of the heritage of the past thousand years was lost.
  • If you've ever lost your camera somewhere, you can probably appreciate the sentiments expressed on this poster.
  • As for a lawsuit, consider not only the issues of lost time and a further bruised ego, but also money.
  • Subjects on the other diets had lost between three and six pounds.
  • Also steer clear of lightweight or shriveled bulbs, since these may have lost too much moisture to recover well.
  • If you follow science news, you've heard a lot about something called dark energy, and you're probably feeling lost and confused.
  • At some point, it seemed, these older neurons lost their intrinsic ability to grow axons at all.
British Dictionary definitions for lost

lost

/lɒst/
adjective
1.
unable to be found or recovered
2.
unable to find one's way or ascertain one's whereabouts
3.
confused, bewildered, or helpless: he is lost in discussions of theory
4.
(sometimes foll by on) not utilized, noticed, or taken advantage of (by): rational arguments are lost on her
5.
no longer possessed or existing because of defeat, misfortune, or the passage of time: a lost art
6.
destroyed physically: the lost platoon
7.
(foll by to) no longer available or open (to)
8.
(foll by to) insensible or impervious (to a sense of shame, justice, etc)
9.
(foll by in) engrossed (in): he was lost in his book
10.
morally fallen: a lost woman
11.
damned: a lost soul
12.
(usually imperative) (informal) get lost, go away and stay away

lose

/luːz/
verb (mainly transitive) loses, losing, lost
1.
to part with or come to be without, as through theft, accident, negligence, etc
2.
to fail to keep or maintain: to lose one's balance
3.
to suffer the loss or deprivation of: to lose a parent
4.
to cease to have or possess
5.
to fail to get or make use of: to lose a chance
6.
(also intransitive) to fail to gain or win (a contest, game, etc): to lose the match
7.
to fail to see, hear, perceive, or understand: I lost the gist of his speech
8.
to waste: to lose money gambling
9.
to wander from so as to be unable to find: to lose one's way
10.
to cause the loss of: his delay lost him the battle
11.
to allow to go astray or out of sight: we lost him in the crowd
12.
(usually passive) to absorb or engross: he was lost in contemplation
13.
(usually passive) to cause the death or destruction of: two men were lost in the attack
14.
to outdistance or elude: he soon lost his pursuers
15.
(intransitive) to decrease or depreciate in value or effectiveness: poetry always loses in translation
16.
(also intransitive) (of a timepiece) to run slow (by a specified amount): the clock loses ten minutes every day
17.
(of a physician) to fail to sustain the life of (a patient)
18.
(of a woman) to fail to give birth to (a viable baby), esp as the result of a miscarriage
19.
(motor racing, slang) to lose control of (the car), as on a bend: he lost it going into Woodcote
20.
(slang) lose it, to lose control of oneself or one's temper
Derived Forms
losable, adjective
losableness, noun
Word Origin
Old English losian to perish; related to Old English -lēosan as in forlēosan to forfeit. Compare loose
Word Origin and History for lost
adj.

"defeated," c.1300; "wasted, spent in vain," c.1500; also "no longer to be found" (1520s), from past participle of lose. Lost Cause in reference to the Southern U.S. bid for independence is from the title of E.A. Pollard's history of the CSA and the rebellion (1866). Lost Generation in reference to the period 1914-18 first attested 1926 in Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises," where he credits it to Gertrude Stein.

lose

v.

Old English losian "be lost, perish," from los "destruction, loss," from Proto-Germanic *lausa- (cf. Old Norse los "the breaking up of an army;" Old English forleosan "to lose, destroy," Old Frisian forliasa, Old Saxon farliosan, Middle Dutch verliesen, Old High German firliosan, German verlieren), from PIE root *leu- "to loosen, divide, cut apart, untie, separate" (cf. Sanskrit lunati "cuts, cuts off," lavitram "sickle;" Greek lyein "to loosen, untie, slacken," lysus "a loosening;" Latin luere "to loose, release, atone for, expiate").

Replaced related leosan (a class II strong verb whose past participle loren survives in forlorn and lovelorn), from Proto-Germanic *leusanan (cf. Old High German virliosan, German verlieren, Old Frisian urliasa, Gothic fraliusan "to lose").

Transitive sense of "to part with accidentally" is from c.1200. Meaning "fail to maintain" is from mid-15c. Meaning "to be defeated" (in a game, etc.) is from 1530s. Meaning "to cause (someone) to lose his way" is from 1640s. To lose (one's) mind "become insane" is attested from c.1500. To lose out "fail" is 1858, American English. Related: Lost; losing.

Slang definitions & phrases for lost

lost

Related Terms

get lost


Idioms and Phrases with lost

lost

also see:

lose

also see:
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