perdulous

English

Etymology

See perdu (adjective).

Adjective

perdulous (not comparable)

1. (obsolete, rare) lost; thrown away
   • 1818, John Brown (of Great Yarmouth.), Psyche; Or, The Soul: a Poem in Seven Cantos, page 28:

     Those patagonian terms of verse
     Which made it run so free and terse,
     We see quotidianly become
     Completely perdulous, or dumb.

   • 1835, John Matthew, Notes and comments designed to elucidate a sermon, page 24:

     He may be one of those who have long witnessed, in silent grief, the desolating effects of our contentions; he may have contemplated, with hopeless regret, the perdulous imbecility of our contracted views, and of our puerile politics, —of our repeated evolutions in intricate mazes, —“our flight in circles, which advances nought."

   • 1863, George Fleming, Travels on Horseback in Mantchu Tartary, page 349:

     The terrifying stillness that haunted this perdulous spot was not among the least of my visitations, as I dropped down on the scraggy verge, imagining that a brief rest would lull or ameliorate the symptoms of exhaustion I laboured under.

   • 1887, Frederic William Farrar, Eric, Or, Little by Little: A Tale of Roslyn School, page 62:

     No sooner was this done than the mischievous whiff of sea air which entered the room began to trifle and coquet with the perdulous half sheet pinned in front of the desk, causing thereby an unwonted little pattering crepitation.