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 .

Example Sentences

"It really speaks to how some organisations and some corporations, in their attempt to be inclusive, miss the boat," he adds.

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“I’m just concerned that our industry is going to miss the boat on the wind farm work,” he said.

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Here’s a statement that you can quote: Waiting for ships that never come in A girl is likely to miss the boat.

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“Sometimes you focus too much on the winning and you miss the boat.”

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“People who try to define him by politics miss the boat completely,” Lowden said.

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Related Words

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