English

Noun

forlorn hope ‎(plural forlorn hopes)

1. (military) A small troop picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack; a storming party.
   • 1880, Isaac Newton Arnold, Life of Benedict Arnold, p. 82:

     Arnold, therefore, as usual with him, led the forlorn hope, marching about one hundred yards before the main body.

   • 1885, George Bruce Malleson, The Decisive Battles of India, p. 323:

     Lieutenant Templeton of the 76th offered to lead the forlorn hope.

2. Any dangerous or hopeless venture.

Translations

Synonyms

• (military) cannon fodder

References

• "Forlorn hope" in Michael Quinion, Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds, 2004.
• Memoirs of a situationist drummer: on language and its uses in Principia Dialectica, July 16th, 2009
• Debord, Guy (1967) The society of the spectacle, thesis 115
• Grassi, Giuseppe (1833) Dizionario militare italiano p.107