miss1
- to fail to hit or strike: to miss a target.
- to fail to encounter, meet, catch, etc.: to miss a train.
- to fail to take advantage of: to miss a chance.
- to fail to be present at or for: to miss a day of school.
- to notice the absence or loss of: When did you first miss your wallet?
- to regret the absence or loss of: I miss you all dreadfully.
- to escape or avoid: He just missed being caught.
- to fail to perceive or understand: to miss the point of a remark.
- to fail to hit something.
- to fail of effect or success; be unsuccessful.
- a failure to hit something.
- a failure of any kind.
- an omission.
- a misfire.
- miss out, Chiefly British. to omit; leave out.
- miss out on, to fail to take advantage of, experience, etc.: You missed out on a great opportunity.
- miss fire. fire(def 52).
Origin of miss1
Related Words
misplaced, gone, lost, moved, forgotten, hidden, removed, mislaid, wanted, needed, desired, unnoticed, unseenExamples from the Web for missed
Contemporary Examples
Ramos just missed being called for one police academy class.
But in a television landscape still so afraid of showing kids that LGBT people exist, it still feels like a missed opportunity.
When his agent asked if he missed his wife, his mind flashed to an image of Alison.
But in the meantime, every day that goes by without these resources is a missed opportunity.
Or for the first time, if you missed the glorious train-wreck that was the Sex Pistols.
The Rancid Ballad of Johnny Rotten: His Memoir Seethes With Anger—And CharmLegs McNeil
November 20, 2014
Historical Examples
We missed our morning mass, it will do us no harm to hear Nones in the Minster.
The Armourer's PrenticesCharlotte M. Yonge
Ten emus came to water; shot twice with rifle at them, but missed.
Explorations in AustraliaJohn Forrest
She overslept and missed her first recitation yesterday morning.
Grace Harlowe's Return to Overton CampusJessie Graham Flower
But he missed no gesture of the girl who stood beside Miss Gregg.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
And pride would not allow the older brother to show how he missed the early days.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
miss1
- to fail to reach, hit, meet, find, or attain (some specified or implied aim, goal, target, etc)
- (tr) to fail to attend or be present forto miss a train; to miss an appointment
- (tr) to fail to see, hear, understand, or perceiveto miss a point
- (tr) to lose, overlook, or fail to take advantage ofto miss an opportunity
- (tr) to leave out; omitto miss an entry in a list
- (tr) to discover or regret the loss or absence ofhe missed his watch; she missed him
- (tr) to escape or avoid (something, esp a danger), usually narrowlyhe missed death by inches
- miss the boat or miss the bus to lose an opportunity
- a failure to reach, hit, meet, find, etc
- give something a miss informal to avoid (something)give the lecture a miss; give the pudding a miss
Word Origin
miss2
- informal an unmarried woman or girl, esp a schoolgirl
Word Origin
Miss
- a title of an unmarried woman or girl, usually used before the surname or sometimes alone in direct address
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for missed
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).
Idioms and Phrases with missed
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