lost causes
Doomed from start
Lost causes are efforts, people, or endeavors with no realistic chance of success.
The phrase often carries a note of affection or stubborn loyalty—someone devoted to a lost cause knows the odds but persists anyway: He's still fighting for that lost cause.
A person described as a lost cause is beyond help or reform: I tried to teach him to cook, but he's a lost cause.
- futileIncapable of producing results
- fool's errandHopeless, pointless task
- dead endPassage without outlet
- quixoticImpractically pursuing lofty goals
- hopelessBeyond possibility of success
fruitless · Sisyphean · ineffectual · martyrdom · vain · cautionary tales · forlorn · redemption arcs · Jacobite risings · abolitionism · tragic heroes · idealism · dystopian narratives · stubbornness · Don Quixote · white whale · League of Nations · unavailing
- Futile Effortswild goose chase, fool's errand, dead end, waste of time, Sisyphean task
- failuresfailure, failures, flop, flops, bust
lost causessure things
Guaranteed outcomes
safe bets · slam dunks · foregone conclusions · certainties · done deals
lose, lost, loss, cause, because, loser, losing, losses, causes