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definitions

Idioms

    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. 2019

Related Words for missed

misplaced, gone, lost, moved, forgotten, hidden, removed, mislaid, wanted, needed, desired, unnoticed, unseen

Examples from the Web for missed

Contemporary Examples of missed

Historical Examples of missed

  • We missed our morning mass, it will do us no harm to hear Nones in the Minster.

    The Armourer's Prentices

    Charlotte M. Yonge

  • Ten emus came to water; shot twice with rifle at them, but missed.

  • She overslept and missed her first recitation yesterday morning.

  • But he missed no gesture of the girl who stood beside Miss Gregg.

    K

    Mary Roberts Rinehart

  • And pride would not allow the older brother to show how he missed the early days.

    K

    Mary Roberts Rinehart

British Dictionary definitions for missed

miss

1

verb

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

noun

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
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

informal an unmarried woman or girl, esp a schoolgirl

Word Origin for miss

C17: shortened form of mistress

Miss

noun

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 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).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.