A lost cause is a hopeless effort, something with no chance of success: Repairing that cracked mug is a lost cause. Cause here isn't a reason but something you fight for, as in a good cause. About a person it sounds harsh: I'm a lost cause at maths is fine as a joke about yourself, but about someone else it hurts.
When would you say a lost cause?
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be / seem a lost cause; consider something a lost cause
- With the final train already gone, reaching the village that night was a lost cause.
- Everyone thought the garden was a lost cause until the volunteers arrived.
- Repairing that cracked mug is a lost cause; it will not hold water.
What changed
First versionSaving the soaked paper model was a lost case.
RevisionSaving the soaked paper model was a lost cause.
A hopeless situation is often called a hopeless case, so case seems to fit. But the idiom uses cause, something you fight for: a lost cause. Replace case with cause, and you have the fixed expression.
A tall order is very hard but still possible. A lost cause has no chance left: Everyone thought the garden was a lost cause until the volunteers arrived. A hopeless case is more often said about a person nothing seems to help.
Your turn
Choose the idiom meaning an effort judged hopeless: a lost ___.
Show the answer
cause — The idiom uses cause, something worth fighting for. Case means a situation and doesn't form the idiom.
Describe a thing or a plan everyone thought was hopeless but that was saved in the end. Use a lost cause.
We thought the ruined garden was a lost cause, but the neighbours helped restore it.
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