lose

Pronunciation

• enPR: lo͞oz, IPA^(key): /luːz/

• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -uːz

• Audio (US)

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• Homophones: loos, Lou’s

Verb

lose (third-person singular simple present loses, present participle losing, simple past and past participle lost)

1. (transitive) To cause (something) to cease to be in one's possession or capability due to unfortunate or unknown circumstances, events or reasons.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎:

     Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.

   • 2011 April 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Norwich 2-1 Nott'm Forest”, in BBC Sport:

     Forest, who lost striker Kris Boyd to injury seconds before half-time, produced little after the break, with a Tyson sliced shot from 12 yards their only opportunity of note.

   If you lose that ten-pound note, you'll be sorry.

   He lost his hearing in the explosion.

   She lost her position when the company was taken over.

2. To wander from; to miss, so as not to be able to find; to go astray from.

   I lost my way in the forest.

   • Shakespeare

     He hath lost his fellows.

3. (transitive) To have (an organ) removed from one's body, especially by accident.

   Johnny lost a tooth, but kept it for the tooth fairy.

   He lost his spleen in a car wreck.

4. (transitive) To fail to win (a game, competition, trial, etc).

   We lost the football match.

   • Dryden

     I fought the battle bravely which I lost, / And lost it but to Macedonians.

5. (transitive) To shed (weight).

   I’ve lost five pounds this week.

6. (transitive) To be unable to follow or trace (somebody or something) any longer.

   The policeman lost the robber he was chasing.

   Mission control lost the satellite as its signal died down.

7. (transitive) To cause (somebody) to be unable to follow or trace one any longer.

   We managed to lose our pursuers in the forest.

8. (transitive) To experience the death of (someone to whom one has an attachment, such as a relative or friend).

   She lost all her sons in the war.

9. (transitive) To cease exhibiting; to overcome (a behavior or emotion).
   • 2007, Ron Liebman, Death by Rodrigo, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 134:

     I can see Mickie getting hot, I'm about to grab his arm, hold him back, say, Whoa, whoa, Mick, not here, it ain't worth it what happened inside just now. But I don't need to because Mickie loses his anger, starts smiling at ponytail, then melodramatically starts looking around at the men and women on the street going in and out of the courthouse.

   • 2012, Tracy Brooks, Dancing in the Rain, →ISBN, page 349:

     Her attitude was so bad my mother wound up telling her, “You know we really don't have to be standing here talking to you, so you can lose the attitude or you can leave.

10. (transitive, informal) To shed, remove, discard, or eliminate.

    When we get into the building, please lose the hat.

11. Of a clock, to run slower than expected.

    My watch loses five minutes a week.

    It's already 5:30? My watch must have lost a few minutes.

12. To cause (someone) the loss of something; to deprive of.
    • Baxter

      O false heart! thou hadst almost betrayed me to eternal flames, and lost me this glory.

    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, page 556:

      This lost Catholicism […] any semblance of a claim to special status, and also highlighted the gains which other religious formations had derived from the Revolution.

13. To fail to catch with the mind or senses; to miss.

    I lost a part of what he said.

14. (transitive, archaic) To cause to part with; to deprive of.
    • Sir W. Temple

      How should you go about to lose him a wife he loves with so much passion?

Noun

lose

1. (obsolete) Fame, renown; praise.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.12:

     That much he feared least reprochfull blame / With foule dishonour him mote blot therefore; / Besides the losse of so much loos and fame […].

Alternative forms

• los (also a distinct word, but not separable in many contexts)

Adjective

lose

1. loose, slack

Verb

lose

1. First-person singular present of losen.
2. First-person singular subjunctive I of losen.
3. Third-person singular subjunctive I of losen.
4. Imperative singular of losen.