miscarry
Americanverb (used without object)
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miscarries,
present (3rd person singular)
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miscarried,
past participle, past
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miscarrying
present participle
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to have a miscarriage of a fetus.
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to fail to attain the right or desired end; be unsuccessful.
The plan miscarried.
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to go astray or be lost in transit, as a letter.
verb
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to expel a fetus prematurely from the womb; abort
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to fail
all her plans miscarried
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(of freight, mail, etc) to fail to reach a destination
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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miscarrysimple
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miscarriessimple
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have miscarriedperfect
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has miscarriedperfect
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am miscarryingprogressive
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are miscarryingprogressive
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is miscarryingprogressive
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have been miscarryingperfect progressive
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has been miscarryingperfect progressive
Past
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miscarriedsimple
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had miscarriedperfect
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was miscarryingprogressive
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were miscarryingprogressive
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had been miscarryingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of miscarry
First recorded in 1275–1325, miscarry is from the Middle English word miscarien. See mis- 1, carry
Vocabulary lists containing miscarry
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Listeria infections are especially serious for anyone who is pregnant, as a listeria infection during pregnancy can cause a patient to miscarry, deliver a stillbirth, or deliver the baby early.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2025
But even in the cases of those who miscarry and are denied medical care, there's not much concern.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2024
UK workers who miscarry before 24 weeks have no legal right to maternity or parental-bereavement leave - although, a number of large companies, including Tesco, Lidl, John Lewis and Santander, offer it.
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2024
“A lot of people successfully miscarry on their own, but that can take a couple months,” Loren said in an interview.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2024
Even with the arrows gone they fared little better, for Athena had now come to take a part in the great deeds being done and she made each attempt to reach Odysseus miscarry.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
A woman who miscarries and needs medical care is, in this worldview, much like a malfunctioning appliance.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2024
Like my husband, many men experience sadness, grief, stress, anxiety, and depression after their partner miscarries.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 2, 2021
One of its most talked-about sequences came when Fleabag’s sister miscarries in a restaurant toilet cubicle.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 22, 2020
Is a woman who miscarries early responsible for fishing her small, sometimes hard-to-identify embryo out of a blood-filled toilet bowl before flushing?
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2019
"It is spoken with understanding and foresight. But how do I draw back my arm if all this miscarries?"
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
Through his remissions, they pursued fertility treatments and rounds of IVF, but miscarried each time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
One of the women, she recalled, was about four months pregnant when she miscarried twins.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 3, 2025
Eventually, she began to see brown discharge and was taken to an off-site hospital where, days later, health care providers confirmed she had miscarried.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2025
"There was no stability. We kept relocating. My body was exhausted," she says, recalling how she miscarried.
From BBC ● May 27, 2025
When Estella miscarried a third time, the doctor spelled the consequences out more plainly: “Another pregnancy could kill your wife.”
From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez
Most disturbing of all, women who were actively miscarrying, an already physically painful and emotionally shattering experience, said they were ignored entirely by facility staff.
From Slate ● Dec. 8, 2025
As she was miscarrying and bleeding profusely, she said physicians didn’t explain that she had options for care.
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2025
ProPublica previously reported on two such cases in which miscarrying women in Texas died of sepsis after doctors delayed evacuating their uteruses.
From Salon ● Feb. 21, 2025
"I was not prepared for the shock of miscarrying at work during my first pregnancy," she said.
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2025
So far Edward Henry's plan was not miscarrying.
From The Regent by Bennett, Arnold
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
