lost soul

lost soul (plural lost souls)

1. (set phrase, religion) A soul that is destined to go to hell; a person possessing such a soul.
   • 1847, Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, ch. 11:

     "Well, I won't repeat my offer of a wife: it is as bad as offering Satan a lost soul."

   • 1869, Charles Kingsley, The Hermits, ch. 11:

     St. Malo, seized with pity for the lost soul of the heathen, opens the mound and raises the dead to life.

2. (idiomatic) One who is forlorn, who lacks direction, purpose, or motivation in life.
   • 1906, Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, ch. 10:

     Of course she stopped paying her dues to the union. She lost all interest in the union. . . . She had about made up her mind that she was a lost soul.

   • 1946 Oct. 7, "Books: The Fall of Valor," Time (retrieved 5 May 2015):

     Charles Jackson's first novel, The Lost Weekend, was the story of five days in the life of a lost soul, Don Birnam, a confirmed and hopeless alcoholic.

• (one who is forlorn): loser, sad sack

• woebegone