lost

English

Alternative forms

• los'
• loss

Etymology

From Middle English loste, losede (preterite) and Middle English lost, ilost, ilosed (past participle), from Old English losode (preterite) and Old English losod, ġelosod, equivalent to lose +‎ -t.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: lŏst, IPA^(key): /lɒst/

  Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (UK, dated) enPR: lôst, IPA^(key): /lɔːst/
• (US) enPR: lôst, IPA^(key): /lɔst/
• (US, cot–caught merger) enPR: läst, IPA^(key): /lɑst/

  Audio (US)

  (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /lɒst/

  Audio (CA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒst, -ɔːst

Verb

lost

1. simple past and past participle of lose

Derived terms

Adjective

lost (comparative loster or more lost, superlative lostest or most lost)

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

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

     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.

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

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• LTOs, OSLT, OTLs, STOL, lots, slot, tols

Breton

Etymology

Cognate with Welsh llost, Cornish lost, Gaulish losto-, from Proto-Celtic *lustā, from Proto-Indo-European *lew- (“to divide, split”), possibly related to Old Norse ljósta (“to strike”), Proto-Germanic *leustaną.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

lost m (plural lostoù)

1. A tail.
2. (informal) a cock, a penis.

   Ha ma lost bras 'zo bet troc'het

   And my big penis was cut off (from a Breton bawdy song)

Cornish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *lustā, from Proto-Indo-European *lew- (“to divide, split”), possibly related to Old Norse ljósta (“to strike”), Proto-Germanic *leustaną. Cognate with Welsh llost, Breton lost, Gaulish losto-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

lost m

1. A tail.
2. (informal) a cock, a penis.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔst

Verb

lost

1. inflection of lossen:
   1. second/third-person singular present indicative
   2. (archaic) plural imperative

Adjective

lost

1. superlative degree of los

Anagrams

• slot, stol

German

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /loːst/

Verb

lost

1. inflection of losen:
   1. second/third-person singular present
   2. second-person plural present
   3. plural imperative

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English lost.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lɔst/

Adjective

lost (strong nominative masculine singular loster, not comparable)

1. (slang) clueless, confused; lost; vain

Further reading

• “lost” in Duden online
• “lost” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Icelandic

Noun

lost n (genitive singular losts, nominative plural lost)

1. shock

Declension

Derived terms

• raflost

Further reading

• “lost” in the Dictionary of Modern Icelandic (in Icelandic) and ISLEX (in the Nordic languages)