Idiom
lost cause
Meaning
A person or thing that is hopeless or futile.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Fixing that old car is a lost cause.”
“After months of trying to change his mind, his friends decided he was a lost cause.”
“The environmental group had poured years into saving the polluted river, but by now even its most devoted members privately admitted it was a lost cause.”
Examples
simple
“Fixing that old car is a lost cause.”
contextual
“After months of trying to change his mind, his friends decided he was a lost cause.”
complex
“The environmental group had poured years into saving the polluted river, but by now even its most devoted members privately admitted it was a lost cause.”
Origin
From the generic term lost cause. The Confederacy was, of course, defeated.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated