miss

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /mɪs/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪs

From Middle English missen, from Old English missan (“to miss, escape the notice of a person”), from Proto-West Germanic *missijan, from Proto-Germanic *missijaną (“to miss, go wrong, fail”), from Proto-Indo-European *meytH- (“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”).

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.

   • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

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

   • 1666, Edmund Waller, "Instructions to a Painter:

     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

   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:

     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!

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 58:

     […] what by me thou haſt loſt thou leaſt ſhalt miſs.

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

     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.

5. (transitive) To fail to understand;

   miss the joke

6. (transitive) To fail to notice; to have a shortcoming of perception; overlook.

   So I'm just going over my early notes, see if I missed anything.

7. (transitive) To fail to attend.

   Joe missed the meeting this morning.

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

   I missed the plane!

9. (transitive) To be wanting; to lack something that should be present.

   The car is missing essential features.

10. (transitive, slang) To spare someone of something unwanted or undesirable.

    Miss me with that nonsense!

11. (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!

12. (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.

13. (intransitive, obsolete) To go wrong; to err.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 2:

      Emongst the Angels, a whole legione / Of wicked Sprights did fall from happy blis; / What wonder then, if one of women all did mis?

14. (intransitive, obsolete) To be absent, deficient, or wanting.
    • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act PROLOGUE, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]:

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

• This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs

• (antonym(s) of “to fail to hit”): hit, strike, impinge on, run into, collide with
• (antonym(s) of “to feel the absence of”): have, feature

From Middle English misse, mis, from Old English miss (“loss, absence”), from Proto-West Germanic *miss, from Proto-Germanic *miss- (“loss”). Cognate with Scots miss (“a loss, want, cause of grief or mourning”), Middle High German misse, mis (“lack, missing, absence”), Icelandic missir (“loss”). Related also to Scots mis (“wrongdoing, sin, guilt”), Dutch mis (“misdeed, wrongdoing, mistake”), Middle Low German misse (“sin, wrong”).

miss (plural misses)

1. A failure to hit.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 76:

     "I ran from one place to another, and as it was not difficult to get a shot at him, I fired several times, but only made miss after miss."

2. A failure to obtain or accomplish.
3. An act of avoidance (usually 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.
   • 1999, Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Operating Systems:

     Already we're seeing fewer cache misses by avoiding creating cache entries for the idle task and expect to see even fewer with changes to the TLB reload code to uncache the page tables.

5. (obsolete) Error, fault; misdeed, wrongdoing, sin.
6. (obsolete) Hurt or harm from a mistake or accident.
7. (obsolete) Loss, lack want; hence, the feeling of loss.

From mistress.

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

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:

     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.
   • 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

     courting a Miss

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.

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

• missis, missus
• missy

• ISMS, MSIs, SIMS, Sims, isms, sims

Borrowed from English miss.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [ˈmis]

miss f (plural misses)

1. beauty queen

From English miss.

• IPA^(key): /mɪs/

• Audio

  (file)

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.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• mss

miss

1. (Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of misschien (“maybe”).

• miß (superseded)

• IPA^(key): /mɪs/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪs

miss

1. singular imperative of messen

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪs/

miss

1. second-person singular imperative of mess

miss

1. imperative of missa

• mis — late Old English

From Proto-West Germanic *miss, from Proto-Germanic *miss- (“loss, want”), from Proto-Indo-European *meytH- (“to change, replace”). Cognate with Old Norse missir, missa (“loss”).

• IPA^(key): /miss/, [mis]

miss n

1. loss

• mis-
• misċan
• missan

• Middle English: mis, mys, misse, mysse (merged with Old Norse missir, missa)
  • English: miss
  • Scots: mis, miss

Unadapted borrowing from English Miss.

• IPA^(key): /mis/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -is
• Syllabification: miss

miss f (indeclinable)

1. beauty queen

• miss in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• miss in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Unadapted borrowing from English miss.

miss f (plural miss)

1. miss

Unadapted borrowing from English miss.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmis/ [ˈmis]
• Rhymes: -is
• Syllabification: miss
• Homophone: mis

miss f (plural misses, masculine míster, masculine plural místeres)

1. Miss, beauty queen (winner in a female beauty contest)

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

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

• sims

• audio

  (file)

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

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