noun

• A person or thing that can no longer hope to succeed or be changed for the better.

  ‘their opposition to planning for full employment was a lost cause’

  More example sentences

  • ‘he denied his drinking problem, and his friend left believing he was a lost cause’
  • ‘The plot itself is far from coherent and often meanders, but in a sense this fits with the characters it encapsulates: a bunch of lost causes fumbling their way through life in search of an unattainable salvation.’
  • ‘St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, has received excessive attention from me recently, despite the fact that I am not Catholic.’
  • ‘But I'm afraid I've never been one for lost causes.’
  • ‘We put much effort into finding candidates that reflect the diversity of Canadian society, but many of our campaigns are also lost causes.’
  • ‘Those guys have an uncanny ability to back lost causes.’
  • ‘My ninth graders were the kids the system had given up on - the dropouts, the lost causes.’
  • ‘Other lawyers said he was crazy to gamble millions of his firm's hours and resources on what looked like lost causes.’
  • ‘Most lost causes in history have been supported by younger siblings and opposed by first-borns.’
  • ‘He is powerful, he chases seemingly lost causes and he does so much hard work for the team.’
  • ‘Cork made four substitutions at half time and that resulted in an improvement, but they were still fighting a lost cause.’
  • ‘With typical endeavour, Craig chased after a lost cause.’
  • ‘I know that it would be a lost cause to try to explain it to them.’
  • ‘I have a sneaking suspicion that they think it's a lost cause.’
  • ‘So it is not all a lost cause although, given its length, the season may yet harbour a number of very unpleasant surprises.’
  • ‘No area can be taken for granted or written off as a lost cause, and there are incentives to build further support to win more seats.’
  • ‘Sometimes if you chase the lost cause, fans think it is great.’
  • ‘I don't want to believe it's a lost cause, I don't want to believe that.’
  • ‘He suggests that in some respects, traditionalists might be fighting for a lost cause.’
  • ‘Just as I was about to give it up as a lost cause, I found it, on top of my book shelf in my lounge, in plain view, where I had already looked for it.’
  • ‘In the local school system I was branded a loser, a lost cause, and encouraged to drop out.’