miscarriage

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: mis=car=riage

CIDE DICTIONARY

miscarriage, n. 

•  Unfortunate event or issue of an undertaking; failure to attain a proper or desired result or reach a destination; as, a serious miscarriage of justice.  [1913 Webster]

  "When a counselor, to save himself,
  Would lay miscarriages upon his prince."  [1913 Webster]
•  Ill conduct; evil or improper behavior; as, the failings and miscarriages of the righteous.  Rogers.  [1913 Webster]
•  The act of bringing forth a child before the time it is viable; a premature birth, resulting in death of the fetus; spontaneous abortion.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

miscarriage, n.
1 a spontaneous abortion, esp. before the 28th week of pregnancy.
2 Brit. the failure (of a plan, letter, etc.) to reach completion or its destination.

Idiom

miscarriage of justice any failure of the judicial system to attain the ends of justice.

Etymology

MISCARRY, after CARRIAGE

THESAURUS

miscarriage

abortion, abortive attempt, breakdown, clerical error, collapse, corrigendum, defeat, dud, erratum, error, failing, failure, fault, faute, frustration, human error, merry chase, misapprehension, miscalculation, miscarrying, misconception, miscount, misdeal, misfire, misidentification, misjudgment, mismanagement, misplay, misprint, misquotation, misreport, miss, misstatement, mistake, misunderstanding, misuse, typo, typographical error, vain attempt, wet squib, wild-goose chase

ROGET THESAURUS

miscarriage

Failure

N failure, nonsuccess, nonfulfillment, dead failure, successlessness, abortion, miscarriage, brutum fulmen, labor in vain, no go, inefficacy, inefficaciousness, vain attempt, ineffectual attempt, abortive attempt, abortive efforts, flash in the pan, lame and impotent conclusion, frustration, slip 'twixt cup and lip, blunder, fault, omission, miss, oversight, slip, trip, stumble, claudication, footfall, false step, wrong step, faux pas, titubation, b_evue, faute, lurch, botchery, scrape, mess, fiasco, breakdown, flunk, mishap, split, collapse, smash, blow, explosion, repulse, rebuff, defeat, rout, overthrow, discomfiture, beating, drubbing, quietus, nonsuit, subjugation, checkmate, stalemate, fool's mate, fall, downfall, ruin, perdition, wreck, deathblow, bankruptcy, losing game, affaire flamb_ee, victim, bankrupt, flunker, flunky, unsuccessful, successless, failing, tripping, at fault, unfortunate, abortive, addle, stillborn, fruitless, bootless, ineffectual, ineffective, inconsequential, trifling, nugatory, inefficient, insufficient, unavailing, of no effect, aground, grounded, swamped, stranded, cast away, wrecked, foundered, capsized, shipwrecked, nonsuited, foiled, defeated, struck down, borne down, broken down, downtrodden, overborne, overwhelmed, all up with, ploughed, plowed, plucked, lost, undone, ruined, broken, bankrupt, played out, done up, done for, dead beat, ruined root and branch, flambe, knocked on the head, destroyed, frustrated, crossed, unhinged, disconcerted dashed, thrown off one's balance, thrown on one's back, thrown on one's beam ends, unhorsed, in a sorry plight, hard hit, stultified, befooled, dished, hoist on one's own petard, victimized, sacrificed, wide of the mark, out of one's reckoning, left in the lurch, thrown away, unattained, uncompleted, unsuccessfully, to little or no purpose, in vain, re infecta, the bubble has burst, the jig is up, the game is up, all is lost, the devil to pay, parturiunt montes, dies infaustus, tout est perdu hors l'honneur.