lost cause

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lost cause (plural lost causes)

1. (idiomatic) A person or thing that is hopeless or futile.

   He has already made up his mind, and it's a lost cause to try to change it.

   • 2015 April 18, Paul Wilson, The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Artfully pulling the ball back to leave McCleary chasing a lost cause, Sánchez calmly made space for a shot and applied a finish that beat the despairing dives of both Federici and Michael Hector, the latter vainly attempting to recover position when it was too late.

   • 2022, “Kill Bill”, in SOS, performed by SZA:

     I get the sense that it's a lost cause / I get the sense that you might really love her / This text gon' be evidence, this text is evidence / I tried to ration with you, no murders or crimes of passion, but damn

• sinking ship

• Lost Cause

• forlorn hope
• no-hoper

• cassoulet, osculates, scaleouts, scales out