ppl. a. [pa. pple. of LEESE v.1]
† 1. Lost, perished, ruined; doomed to destruction. Obs.
For early instances of predicative use, see LEESE v.1
a. 1300. Cursor M., 22080. Al þat birth þat þar es born be wick, and fals, and felun lorn.
a. 1400–50. Alexander, 5. Sayntis, Þat lete þer lifis be lorne for oure lordis sake.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. vi. 9. O, stanch ȝour wraith for schame, or all is lorn!
1556. Abp. Parker, Ps. lxxxvii. Argt. Hierusalem most fortunate, To nurse both Iewe and gentile lorne.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, I. xxiii. If thou readest, thou art lorn! Better hadst thou ne’er been born!
2. Abandoned, left alone; bereft of; lonely, desolate, wretched; = FORLORN 4, 5.
c. 1475. Partenay, 3885. Raymound, out fro wit for wo almoste lorn.
1563. Sackville, Mirr. Mag., Induct. lxxvii. With gastly lookes as one in maner lorne.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Jan., 62. I … am forlorne, (alas! why am I lorne?).
1607. Schol. Disc. agst. Antichr., I. i. 57. If any thing excuse Iehosophat or Hezechias for suffering the Idolatrous Temples … it was because they were lorne, forlorne.
1748. Collins, Ode Death Thomson, viii. Lorn Stream, whose sullen tide No sedge-crown’d Sisters now attend.
1793[?]. Coleridge, Lines beautiful Spring, 18. The rustic … Whistling lorn ditties leans upon his crook.
1817. Moore, Lalla R., II. (1850), 66. That sky Hath nought beneath it half so lorn as I.
1820. Keats, Hyperion, I. 118. Space starr’d, and lorn of light.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 363. When lorn lovers sit and droop.
1876. T. Hardy, Ethelberta (1890), 281. She might be despised by my lord’s circle, and left lone and lorn.
Hence Lornness, forlornness.
1866. Lond. Rev., 28 April, 470/2. The very lornness of his condition won for him their tender consideration.
