miss
English
editPronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /mɪs/
Audio (General American): (file) - Rhymes: -ɪs
Etymology 1
editFrom 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”).
Verb
editmiss (third-person singular simple present misses, present participle missing, simple past and past participle missed)
- (transitive, intransitive) To fail to hit.
- I missed the _target.
- I tried to kick the ball, but missed.
- 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 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.
- (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.
- (transitive) To avoid; to escape.
- The car just missed hitting a passer-by.
- (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[ohn] 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.
- (transitive) To fail to understand.
- Antonym: catch
- miss the joke
- (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.
- (transitive) To fail to attend.
- Joe missed the meeting this morning.
- (transitive) To be too late to connect with or meet something (a means of transportation, a deadline, etc.).
- I missed the plane!
- (transitive) To be wanting; to lack something that should be present.
- The car is missing essential features.
- (transitive, slang) To spare someone of something unwanted or undesirable.
- Miss me with that nonsense!
- (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!
- (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.
- (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?
- (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.
Usage notes
edit- This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing). See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Antonyms
edit- (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
Derived terms
edit- blink-and-you'll-miss-it
- blink-and-you-miss-it
- hit-and-miss
- hit-or-miss
- hit-or-miss transform
- I miss you
- I never miss
- miss a beat
- miss a trick
- miss fire, misfire
- miss-meal colic
- miss off
- miss oneself
- miss one's guess
- miss one's tip
- miss out
- miss someone's point
- miss stays
- miss the boat
- miss the bus
- miss the forest for the trees
- miss the mark
- miss the memo
- miss the point
- miss the wood for the trees
- miss the woods for the trees
- near miss
- you don't miss the water till the well runs dry
- you miss 100% of the shots you don't take
- you never miss the water till the well runs dry
- you never miss the water until the well runs dry
Descendants
edit- → Kashubian: zmisowac (Canada, United States)
Translations
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Etymology 2
editFrom 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”).
Noun
editmiss (plural misses)
- 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."
- A failure to obtain or accomplish.
- An act of avoidance (usually used with the verb give)
- I think I’ll give the meeting a miss.
- (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.
- (obsolete) Error, fault; misdeed, wrongdoing, sin.
- (obsolete) Hurt or harm from a mistake or accident.
- (obsolete) Loss, lack want; hence, the feeling of loss.
Derived terms
editTranslations
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Etymology 3
editFrom mistress.
Alternative forms
edit- Miss
- meess, Meess (archaic, eye dialect)
Noun
editmiss (countable and uncountable, plural misses)
- 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.
- A term of address by a student for a female teacher.
- Coordinate term: sir
- Here's my report, miss.
- 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.
- 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
- (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- (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)
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editTranslations
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Anagrams
editCatalan
editEtymology
editPronunciation
editNoun
editmiss f (plural misses)
Dutch
editEtymology 1
editPronunciation
editNoun
editmiss f (plural missen, diminutive missje n)
- a winner of a beauty contest
- Annelien Coorevits was Miss België in 2007.
- Annelien Coorevits was Miss Belgium in 2007.
- a beauty
- a girl with a high self-esteem
- Dat is nogal een miss, hoor.
- She has some air.
Etymology 2
editSee the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Alternative forms
editAdverb
editmiss
- (Internet slang, text messaging) Abbreviation of misschien (“maybe”).
German
editAlternative forms
edit- miß (superseded)
Pronunciation
editVerb
editmiss
Maltese
editPronunciation
editVerb
editmiss
Norwegian Nynorsk
editVerb
editmiss
- imperative of missa
Old English
editAlternative forms
edit- mis — late Old English
Etymology
editFrom 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”).
Pronunciation
editNoun
editmiss n
Declension
editStrong a-stem:
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | miss | miss |
accusative | miss | miss |
genitive | misses | missa |
dative | misse | missum |
Related terms
editDescendants
editPolish
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from English miss.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editmiss f (indeclinable)
Further reading
editRomanian
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from English miss.
Noun
editmiss f (plural miss)
- miss (title)
Spanish
editEtymology
editUnadapted borrowing from English miss.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editmiss f (plural misses, masculine míster, masculine plural místeres)
- Miss, beauty queen (winner in a female beauty contest)
Usage notes
editAccording 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.
Further reading
edit- “miss”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10
Anagrams
editSwedish
editPronunciation
editAudio: (file)
Etymology 1
editRelated to the verb missa. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term. Also from English miss?.
Noun
editmiss c
- a miss (failure to hit)
- Synonym: bom
- Var det en träff eller en miss?
- Was it a hit or a miss?
- a mistake
- Synonym: misstag
- Jag gjorde en miss
- I made a mistake
- en rejäl miss
- a big mistake / a huge blunder
Declension
editnominative | genitive | ||
---|---|---|---|
singular | indefinite | miss | miss |
definite | missen | missens | |
plural | indefinite | missar | missars |
definite | missarna | missarnas |
Etymology 2
editNoun
editmiss c
- Miss ((title for an) unmarried woman (in English-speaking countries))
- Synonym: (native) fröken
- a Miss ((title for a) female participant in or winner of a beauty pageant or beauty contest)
- Synonyms: skönhetsmiss, (sometimes, for Swedish contests) fröken
- Miss Hawaii gick vidare till att vinna Miss America-tävlingen
- Miss Hawaii went on to win the Miss America contest
- 1964, Thore Skogman (lyrics and music), “Fröken Fräken [Miss Freckle]”[2]performed by Sven-Ingvars:
- Jag har sett miss Grekland. Jag har sett miss Kina. Nästan alla världens vackra misser har jag mött. Och jag tyckte alla, sköna var och fina. Men när jag kom hem till Värmland mötte jag en Värmlandsjänta, och hon är för mig det allra sötaste bland sött. Lilla söta fröken Fräken ifrån Fryken blev miss Värmland nu i år. Alla Värmlandspulsar slår när hon genom staden går. Lilla söta fröken Fräken ifrån Fryken, hon är blond som ängens råg. Vackrast utav alla flickorna jag såg.
- I have seen Miss Greece. I have seen Miss China. I have met almost every beautiful Miss in the world [almost all the world's beautiful Misses have I met]. And I thought all of them were beautiful and pretty. But when I came home to Värmland, I met a Värmland gal, and she is to me the very cutest among cute. Cute little Miss Freckle from Fryken became Miss Värmland [now] this year. All the Värmland pulses beat when she walks through the city. Cute little Miss Freckle from Fryken, she is blonde like the rye of the meadow. The most beautiful of all the girls I saw.
Declension
editSee also
edit- skönhetsdrottning (“beauty queen”)
- skönhetstävling (“beauty pageant, beauty contest”)
Etymology 3
editInterjection
editmiss
Derived terms
editReferences
edit- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɪs
- Rhymes:English/ɪs/1 syllable
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *meytH-
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *mey- (change)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms inherited from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English slang
- en:Poker
- en:Sports
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Computing
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *méǵh₂s
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Proto-Italic
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Card games
- en:Titles
- en:Female
- Catalan terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Catalan terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *méǵh₂s
- Catalan terms derived from Old French
- Catalan terms derived from Latin
- Catalan terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Catalan terms borrowed from English
- Catalan terms derived from English
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan nouns
- Catalan countable nouns
- Catalan feminine nouns with no feminine ending
- Catalan feminine nouns
- Dutch terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Dutch terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *méǵh₂s
- Dutch terms derived from Old French
- Dutch terms derived from Latin
- Dutch terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Dutch terms borrowed from English
- Dutch terms derived from English
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch terms with audio pronunciation
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -en
- Dutch feminine nouns
- Dutch terms with usage examples
- Dutch adverbs
- Dutch internet slang
- Dutch text messaging slang
- Dutch abbreviations
- German 1-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- German terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:German/ɪs
- Rhymes:German/ɪs/1 syllable
- German non-lemma forms
- German verb forms
- Maltese 1-syllable words
- Maltese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Maltese non-lemma forms
- Maltese verb forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk verb forms
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English neuter nouns
- Old English neuter a-stem nouns
- Polish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Polish terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *méǵh₂s
- Polish terms derived from Old French
- Polish terms derived from Latin
- Polish terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Polish terms borrowed from English
- Polish unadapted borrowings from English
- Polish terms derived from English
- Polish 1-syllable words
- Polish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Polish terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:Polish/is
- Rhymes:Polish/is/1 syllable
- Polish lemmas
- Polish nouns
- Polish indeclinable nouns
- Polish feminine nouns
- pl:Appearance
- pl:Female people
- Romanian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Romanian terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *méǵh₂s
- Romanian terms derived from Old French
- Romanian terms derived from Latin
- Romanian terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Romanian terms borrowed from English
- Romanian unadapted borrowings from English
- Romanian terms derived from English
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian nouns
- Romanian countable nouns
- Romanian feminine nouns
- Spanish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Spanish terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *méǵh₂s
- Spanish terms derived from Old French
- Spanish terms derived from Latin
- Spanish terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Spanish terms borrowed from English
- Spanish unadapted borrowings from English
- Spanish terms derived from English
- Spanish 1-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/is
- Rhymes:Spanish/is/1 syllable
- Spanish terms with homophones
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish feminine nouns
- Swedish terms with audio pronunciation
- Swedish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Swedish terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *meytH-
- Swedish terms borrowed from English
- Swedish terms derived from English
- Swedish lemmas
- Swedish nouns
- Swedish common-gender nouns
- Swedish terms with usage examples
- Swedish terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *méǵh₂s
- Swedish terms derived from Old French
- Swedish terms derived from Latin
- Swedish terms derived from Proto-Italic
- Swedish terms with quotations
- Swedish onomatopoeias
- Swedish interjections
- Swedish terms with rare senses