miss the boat

1. Fail to take advantage of an opportunity, as in Jean missed the boat on that club membership . This expression, which alludes to not being in time to catch a boat, has been applied more widely since the 1920s.

2. Fail to understand something, as in I'm afraid our legislator missed the boat on that amendment to the bill . [Mid-1900s] Also see miss the point .

Related Words

• confuse 
• miscalculate 
• misconstrue 
• misinterpret 
• misjudge 
• misread 
• overestimate 
• overlook 
• underestimate