miss

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See also: Miss, miß, Miß, miss-, miß-, and Miss.

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /mɪs/
  • Audio (US)
    		(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪs

Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English missen, from Old English missan (“to miss, escape the notice of a person”), Proto-Germanic *missijaną (“to miss, go wrong, fail”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyt- (“to change, exchange, trade”). Cognate with West Frisian misse (“to miss”), Dutch missen (“to miss”), German missen (“to miss”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish miste (“to lose”), Swedish missa (“to miss”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic missa (“to lose”).

Verb[edit]

miss (third-person singular simple present misses, present participle missing, simple past and past participle missed)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To fail to hit.
    I missed the target.
    I tried to kick the ball, but missed.
    • (Can we date this quote by Francis Bacon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Men observe when things hit, and not when they miss.
    • (Can we date this quote by Edmund Waller and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Flying bullets now,
      To execute his rage, appear too slow;
      They miss, or sweep but common souls away.
  2. (transitive) To fail to achieve or attain.
    to miss an opportunity
    • (Can we date this quote by John Locke and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      When a man misses his great end, happiness, he will acknowledge he judged not right.
  3. (transitive) To avoid; to escape.
    The car just missed hitting a passer-by.
  4. (transitive) To become aware of the loss or absence of; to feel the want or need of, sometimes with regret.
    I miss you! Come home soon!
  5. (transitive) To fail to understand; to have a shortcoming of perception; overlook.
    miss the joke
  6. (transitive) To fail to attend.
    Joe missed the meeting this morning.
  7. (transitive) To be late for something (a means of transportation, a deadline, etc.).
    I missed the plane!
  8. (transitive) To be wanting; to lack something that should be present.
    The car is missing essential features.
  9. (poker, said of a card) To fail to help the hand of a player.
    Player A: J7. Player B: Q6. Table: 283. The flop missed both players!
  10. (sports) To fail to score (a goal).
    • 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:
      Georgia, ranked 16th in the world, dominated the breakdown before half-time and forced England into a host of infringements, but fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili missed three penalties.
  11. (intransitive, obsolete) To go wrong; to err.
    • (Can we date this quote by Edmund Spenser and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      Amongst the angels, a whole legion / Of wicked sprites did fall from happy bliss; / What wonder then if one, of women all, did miss?
  12. (intransitive, obsolete) To be absent, deficient, or wanting.
Usage notes[edit]
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Derived terms
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

miss (plural misses)

  1. A failure to hit.
  2. A failure to obtain or accomplish.
  3. An act of avoidance (used with the verb give).
    I think I’ll give the meeting a miss.
  4. (computing) The situation where an item is not found in a cache and therefore needs to be explicitly loaded.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From mistress.

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

miss (countable and uncountable, plural misses)

  1. A title of respect for a young woman (usually unmarried) with or without a name used.
    You may sit here, miss.
    You may sit here, Miss Jones.
  2. An unmarried woman; a girl.
    • 1771, James Cawthorn, Poems, by the Rev. Mr. Cawthorn, Late Master of Tunbridge School‎[1]:
      While thus the fiends, with wily art, Adroitly stole upon the heart, And with their complaisance, and tales, Had ruind more than half the males, Gay Vanity, with smiles, and kisses, Was busy 'mongst the maids, and misses.
  3. A kept woman; a mistress.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Evelyn to this entry?)
  4. (card games) In the game of three-card loo, an extra hand, dealt on the table, which may be substituted for the hand dealt to a player.

Coordinate terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
Miss — see Miss

Anagrams[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English miss.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

miss f (plural misses)

  1. beauty queen

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English miss.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

miss f (plural missen, diminutive missje n)

  1. A winner of a beauty contest.
    Annelien Coorevits was Miss België in 2007.
    Annelien Coorevits was Miss Belgium in 2007.
  2. A beauty.
  3. A girl with a high self-esteem.
    Dat is nogal een miss, hoor.
    She has some air.

German[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

miss

  1. second-person singular imperative of messen

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Verb[edit]

miss

  1. imperative of missa

Old English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Germanic *missą, *missijaz, *missō (“loss, want”), from Proto-Indo-European *meit- (“to change, replace”). Cognate with Old Norse missir, missa (“a loss”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

miss n

  1. loss; absence

Declension[edit]

Declension of miss (strong-a-stem)
Case Singular Plural
nominative miss miss
accusative miss miss
genitive misses missa
dative misse missum

Related terms[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English miss.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

miss f (plural misses)

  1. beauty queen

References[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

miss c

  1. A failure to hit.
  2. A mistake.
  3. (rare) A beauty; a winner of a beauty contest.
    Miss Hawaii gick vidare och vann Miss America-tävlingen
    Miss Hawaii went on to win the Miss America contest

Declension[edit]

Declension of miss 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative miss missen missar missarna
Genitive miss missens missars missarnas

Synonyms[edit]

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