How to Use forlorn in a Sentence

forlorn

adjective
  • Some episodes in his final week felt a bit forlorn.
    — Joy Press, Vanity Fair, 22 May 2026
  • Not much turns up on this quick trip — a few small logs and a forlorn ice cream wrapper.
    — Lori Aratani, Washington Post, 22 May 2017
  • Modrić cut a forlorn figure on the bench and buried his face in his hands.
    — Matias Grez, CNN, 24 June 2024
  • His forlorn face and unwieldy limbs clearly struck a chord with cat lovers.
    — Scottie Andrew, CNN, 28 Aug. 2019
  • The world is dark and wild looking, as bleak and forlorn as any Souls game.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 11 June 2021
  • What industry is, or, in the case of the forlorn town, was, the big deal here?
    — Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 5 Sep. 2024
  • But that’s not the case at the post office, still and forever foul and forlorn.
    — Jenny Allen, New Yorker, 19 June 2025
  • The area still had a slightly forlorn air, with stores boarded up and a few tent villages.
    — Tony Perrottet, Travel + Leisure, 25 Jan. 2025
  • This was forlorn and, with the benefit of hindsight, now looks naïve.
    — Tom Tugendhat, Time, 15 Mar. 2018
  • The big event might be over in Old Blighty, but don’t feel forlorn, royal-lovers.
    — Yvonne Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, 6 May 2023
  • The trail was, like many trails in forlorn places, a concept as much as a reality.
    — Mark Johanson, Outside, 14 Mar. 2026
  • Near a bulldozer, the forlorn husk of a car hunkered in the midst of a store’s wreckage.
    — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 22 June 2026
  • Netted and caged, the great beast dwindles to become a forlorn figure gaped at by crowds.
    — Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 4 Sep. 2020
  • There’s a forlorn square along the western fence that was an attempt at a strawberry bed.
    — Washington Post, 27 Apr. 2022
  • On a gray day in March, Rex Brasher’s place looks a bit forlorn.
    — Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2023
  • This forlorn look from Davis didn’t stop in the Lakers locker room.
    — Broderick Turner, Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2023
  • Alec, hands on hips at the shore staring forlorn toward the ocean, sullen that the water is off limits.
    — Dalton Ross, EW.com, 8 July 2021
  • Sunday Most of the tents were blown down overnight, so the park looks forlorn as folks work to reset for the big day.
    — Ben Lowy, Smithsonian, 23 May 2018
  • The sight of father and daughter made the woman who was eager to pack for a tour somewhat forlorn.
    — Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2023
  • So who is right, the students, who plant themselves in the now, or the forlorn historian?
    — Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Negusti said, trembling and searching the forlorn faces of customers who had come in the morning to drink the day away.
    — Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2021
  • Years later, they were found forlorn in parking garages across New York City.
    — Minnah Arshad, Detroit Free Press, 25 Sep. 2021
  • His brother Ray peered in from the back of the ambulance, head hung down, looking scared and forlorn.
    — Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2021
  • The adults tried to keep the mood festive, but Ibrahim’s worries pulled him into forlorn silences.
    — Safak Timur Emin Ozmen, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2024
  • The former is the kind of breakup song a forlorn heart could listen to on an endless loop until help in the form of hope arrives.
    — azcentral, 25 Mar. 2018
  • And yet, the latter seems forlorn and shabby on the charger next to the matte darkness of this inky usurper.
    — Victoria Song, The Verge, 19 Sep. 2024
  • In that absence, its long, forlorn search for goals — the scruffy and the scrappy, the ugly and imperfect — will go on.
    — Rory Smith, New York Times, 21 Nov. 2022
  • Sombr is forlorn, wounded by the demise of a relationship that keeps him from moving on.
    — Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 22 Aug. 2025
  • But for now the dim sum mainstay Yank Sing is the only thing open inside, and the mood is mighty forlorn.
    — John King, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 Feb. 2021
  • The Saghatelyans no longer use this forlorn family heirloom, the girth of which exceeds the width of the door’s frame.
    — Karine Vann, Smithsonian, 14 Feb. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'forlorn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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