forlorn hope

Pronunciation: /fəˌlɔːn ˈhəʊp/

The English word “forlorn hope” has 3 meanings listed here.

noun

A small troop of soldiers picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack; a storming party.
In the plural form forlorn hopes: the soldiers collectively making up such a troop; (by extension) a group of reckless adventurers.
Any dangerous or hopeless venture.

Etymology

Sense 1 (“troop of soldiers picked to make an advance attack, or the first attack”) is a mistranslation of Dutch verloren hoop (literally “lost troop”): verloren (“lost”, adjective) + hoop (“(obsolete) unit of soldiers, contingent; heap, pile, stack”), mistaking the latter word for the homograph hoop (“hope”). Verloren is the past participle of verliezen (“to lose (possession); to be defeated, to…

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