miss

Verb

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.

   • Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

     Men observe when things hit, and not when they miss.

   • Edmund Waller (1606-1687)

     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

   • John Locke (1632-1705)

     When a man misses his great end, happiness, he will acknowledge he judged not right.

3. (transitive) To feel the absence of someone or something, sometimes with regret.

   I miss you! Come home soon!

   • John Milton (1608-1674)

     What by me thou hast lost, thou least shalt miss.

   • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620:

     The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained.

4. (transitive) To fail to understand or have a shortcoming of perception.

   miss the joke

5. (transitive) To fail to attend.

   Joe missed the meeting this morning.

6. (transitive) To be late for something (a means of transportation, a deadline, etc.).

   I missed the plane!

7. (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!

8. (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.

9. (intransitive, obsolete) To go wrong; to err.
   • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)

     Amongst the angels, a whole legion / Of wicked sprites did fall from happy bliss; / What wonder then if one, of women all, did miss?

10. (intransitive, obsolete) To be absent, deficient, or wanting.
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)

      What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

Noun

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.

Alternative forms

• Miss
• meess, Meess (archaic, eye dialect)

Noun

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.
   • Cawthorn

     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

• (titles) (of a man): Mr (Mister, mister), Sir (sir); (of a woman): Ms (Miz, mizz), Mrs (Mistress, mistress), Miss (miss), Dame (dame), (of a non-binary person): Mx (Mixter); (see also): Dr (Doctor, doctor), Madam (madam, ma'am)

Declension

Related terms

• missan verb

References

• “miss” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

Declension

Synonyms

• (failure to hit): bom
• (mistake): misstag
• (beauty): skönhetsmiss