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definitions

miss

1
[mis]
verb (used with object)
  1. to fail to hit or strike: to miss a target.
  2. to fail to encounter, meet, catch, etc.: to miss a train.
  3. to fail to take advantage of: to miss a chance.
  4. to fail to be present at or for: to miss a day of school.
  5. to notice the absence or loss of: When did you first miss your wallet?
  6. to regret the absence or loss of: I miss you all dreadfully.
  7. to escape or avoid: He just missed being caught.
  8. to fail to perceive or understand: to miss the point of a remark.
verb (used without object)
  1. to fail to hit something.
  2. to fail of effect or success; be unsuccessful.
noun
  1. a failure to hit something.
  2. a failure of any kind.
  3. an omission.
  4. a misfire.
Verb Phrases
  1. miss out, Chiefly British. to omit; leave out.
  2. miss out on, to fail to take advantage of, experience, etc.: You missed out on a great opportunity.
Idioms
  1. miss fire. fire(def 52).

Origin of miss

1
before 900; Middle English missen, Old English missan; cognate with Old Frisian missa, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Old High German missen, Old Norse missa to fail to hit or reach
Related formsmiss·a·ble, adjectiveun·miss·a·ble, adjectiveun·missed, adjective
Can be confusedmidst missed mist
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for missable

Historical Examples of missable

  • I was too missable to answer him, and he wouldn't have heard me if I had, for he ran away as fast as he could to play with Nettie.

  • She's a missable little thing to any one who likes her, and she can tempt him to speak out in spite of himself when he gets back.

    Everyman's Land

    C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

British Dictionary definitions for missable

miss

1
verb
  1. to fail to reach, hit, meet, find, or attain (some specified or implied aim, goal, target, etc)
  2. (tr) to fail to attend or be present forto miss a train; to miss an appointment
  3. (tr) to fail to see, hear, understand, or perceiveto miss a point
  4. (tr) to lose, overlook, or fail to take advantage ofto miss an opportunity
  5. (tr) to leave out; omitto miss an entry in a list
  6. (tr) to discover or regret the loss or absence ofhe missed his watch; she missed him
  7. (tr) to escape or avoid (something, esp a danger), usually narrowlyhe missed death by inches
  8. miss the boat or miss the bus to lose an opportunity
noun
  1. a failure to reach, hit, meet, find, etc
  2. give something a miss informal to avoid (something)give the lecture a miss; give the pudding a miss
See also miss out
Derived Formsmissable, adjective

Word Origin for miss

Old English missan (meaning: to fail to hit); related to Old High German missan, Old Norse missa

miss

2
noun
  1. informal an unmarried woman or girl, esp a schoolgirl

Word Origin for miss

C17: shortened form of mistress

Miss

noun
  1. a title of an unmarried woman or girl, usually used before the surname or sometimes alone in direct address

Word Origin for Miss

C17: shortened from mistress
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for missable

miss

v.

Old English missan "fail to hit, miss (a mark); fail in what was aimed at; escape (someone's notice)," influenced by Old Norse missa "to miss, to lack;" both from Proto-Germanic *missjan "to go wrong" (cf. Old Frisian missa, Middle Dutch, Dutch missen, German missen "to miss, fail"), from *missa- "in a changed manner," hence "abnormally, wrongly," from PIE root *mei- "to change" (root of mis- (1); see mutable). Related: Missed; missing.

Meaning "to fail to get what one wanted" is from mid-13c. Sense of "to escape, avoid" is from 1520s; that of "to perceive with regret the absence or loss of (something or someone)" is from late 15c. Sense of "to not be on time for" is from 1823; to miss the boat in the figurative sense of "be too late for" is from 1929, originally nautical slang. To miss out (on) "fail to get" is from 1929.

miss

n.2

"the term of honour to a young girl" [Johnson], originally (c.1600) a shortened form of mistress. By 1640s as "prostitute, concubine;" sense of "title for a young unmarried woman, girl" first recorded 1660s. In the 1811 reprint of the slang dictionary, Miss Laycock is given as an underworld euphemism for "the monosyllable." Miss America is from 1922 as the title bestowed on the winner of an annual nationwide U.S. beauty/talent contest. Earlier it meant "young American women generally" or "the United States personified as a young woman," and it also was the name of a fast motor boat.

miss

n.1

late 12c., "loss, lack; " c. 1200, "regret occasioned by loss or absence," from Old English miss "absence, loss," from source of missan "to miss" (see miss (v.)). Meaning "an act or fact of missing; a being without" is from late 15c.; meaning "a failure to hit or attain" is 1550s. To give something a miss "to abstain from, avoid" is from 1919. Phrase a miss is as good as a mile was originally, an inch, in a miss, is as good as an ell (see ell).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with missable

miss

In addition to the idioms beginning with miss

  • miss a beat
  • miss by a mile
  • miss fire
  • miss is as good as a mile, a
  • miss much
  • miss out on
  • miss the boat
  • miss the point

also see:

  • heart misses a beat
  • hit or miss
  • near miss
  • not miss a trick
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.