Miss

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Miss, n. [Contr. fr. mistress.].

•  A title of courtesy prefixed to the name of a girl or a woman who has not been married. See Mistress, 5.  [1913 Webster]

  " There is diversity of usage in the application of this title to two or more persons of the same name. We may write either the Miss Browns or the Misses Brown."  [1913 Webster]
•  A young unmarried woman or a girl; as, she is a miss of sixteen.  [1913 Webster]

  "Gay vanity, with smiles and kisses,
  Was busy 'mongst the maids and misses."  [1913 Webster]
•  A kept mistress. See Mistress, 4.  Evelyn.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

Miss, v. t. [AS. missan; akin to D. & G. missen, OHG. missan, Icel. missa, Sw. mista, Dan. miste. √100. See Mis-, pref.].

•  To fail of hitting, reaching, getting, finding, seeing, hearing, etc.; as, to miss the mark one shoots at; to miss the train by being late; to miss opportunites of getting knowledge; to miss the point or meaning of something said.  [1913 Webster]

  "When a man misses his great end, happiness, he will acknowledge he judged not right."  [1913 Webster]
•  To omit; to fail to have or to do; to get without; to dispense with; -- now seldom applied to persons.  [1913 Webster]

  "She would never miss, one day,
  A walk so fine, a sight so gay."  [1913 Webster]

  "We cannot miss him; he does make our fire,
  Fetch in our wood."  [1913 Webster]
•  To discover the absence or omission of; to feel the want of; to mourn the loss of; to want; as, to miss an absent loved one.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

  "Neither missed we anything . . . Nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him."  [1913 Webster]

  "What by me thou hast lost, thou least shalt miss."  [1913 Webster]

To miss stays. (Naut.) See under Stay.

Miss, v. i. 

•  To fail to hit; to fly wide; to deviate from the true direction.  [1913 Webster]

  "Men observe when things hit, and not when they miss."  [1913 Webster]

  "Flying bullets now,
  To execute his rage, appear too slow;
  They miss, or sweep but common souls away."  [1913 Webster]
•  To fail to obtain, learn, or find; -- with of.  [1913 Webster]

  "Upon the least reflection, we can not miss of them."  [1913 Webster]
•  To go wrong; to err.  [1913 Webster]

  "Amongst the angels, a whole legion
  Of wicked sprites did fall from happy bliss;
  What wonder then if one, of women all, did miss?"  [1913 Webster]
•  To be absent, deficient, or wanting.  [1913 Webster]

  "What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend."  [1913 Webster]

Miss, n. 

•  The act of missing; failure to hit, reach, find, obtain, etc.  [1913 Webster]
•  Loss; want; felt absence.  [1913 Webster]

  "There will be no great miss of those which are lost."  [1913 Webster]
•  Mistake; error; fault.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

  "He did without any great miss in the hardest points of grammar."  [1913 Webster]
•  Harm from mistake.  Spenser.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Miss, v. & n.
--v.
1 tr. (also absol.) fail to hit, reach, find, catch, etc. (an object or goal).
2 tr. fail to catch (a bus, train, etc.).
3 tr. fail to experience, see, or attend (an occurrence or event).
4 tr. fail to meet (a person); fail to keep (an appointment).
5 tr. fail to seize (an opportunity etc.) (I missed my chance).
6 tr. fail to hear or understand (I'm sorry, I missed what you said).
7 tr. a regret the loss or absence of (a person or thing) (did you miss me while I was away?). b notice the loss or absence of (an object) (bound to miss the key if it isn't there).
8 tr. avoid (go early to miss the traffic).
9 tr. = miss out 1.
10 intr. (of an engine etc.) fail, misfire.
--n.
1 a failure to hit, reach, attain, connect, etc.
2 colloq. = MISCARRIAGE 1.

Idiom

be missing not have (see also MISSING adj.). give (a thing) a miss avoid, leave alone (gave the party a miss). miss the boat (or bus) lose an opportunity. miss fire (of a gun) fail to go off or hit the mark (cf. MISFIRE). a miss is as good as a mile the fact of failure or escape is not affected by the narrowness of the margin. miss out
1 omit, leave out (missed out my name from the list).
2 (usu. foll. by on) colloq. fail to get or experience (always misses out on the good times). not miss much be alert. not miss a trick never fail to seize an opportunity, advantage, etc.

Derivative

missable adj.

Miss, n.
1 a girl or unmarried woman.
2 (Miss) a the title of an unmarried woman or girl, or of a married woman retaining her maiden name for professional purposes. b the title of a beauty queen (Miss World).
3 usu. derog. or joc. a girl, esp. a schoolgirl, with implications of silliness etc.
4 the title used to address a female schoolteacher, shop assistant, etc.

Derivative

missish adj. (in sense 3).

Etymology

abbr. of MISTRESS

DEVIL DICTIONARY

Miss

n. The title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market. Miss, Missis (Mrs.) and Mister (Mr.) are the three most distinctly disagreeable words in the language, in sound and sense. Two are corruptions of Mistress, the other of Master. In the general abolition of social titles in this our country they miraculously escaped to plague us. If we must have them let us be consistent and give one to the unmarried man. I venture to suggest Mush, abbreviated to Mh.

THESAURUS

Miss

abandon, avoid, babe, baby, bachelor girl, be bereaved of, be blind to, be caught out, be inattentive, be unwary, bird, blink at, blunder, broad, bungle, chick, clerical error, coed, colleen, come short, connive at, corrigendum, cut, cutie, dame, damoiselle, damsel, default, demoiselle, discount, disregard, dodge, doll, drop, err, erratum, error, escape, evade, fail, failure, fall down, fall short, fault, faute, filly, foozle, forfeit, forget, forgo, frail, gal, girl, girlie, give no heed, go amiss, go astray, go astray from, goldbrick, goof, goof off, groupie, hear nothing, heifer, hoyden, human error, ignore, incur loss, jeune fille, jill, jump, junior miss, kiss good-bye, lack, lass, lassie, leave, leave loose ends, leave out, leave undone, let alone, let be, let dangle, let go, let pass, let slip, little missy, long for, lose, lose out, mademoiselle, maid, maiden, make light of, malinger, misapprehend, misapprehension, miscalculation, miscarriage, miscarry, misconceive, misconception, misconstrue, miscount, misdeal, misexplain, misfire, misidentification, misinterpret, misjudgment, mislay, misplace, misplay, misprint, misquotation, misread, misreport, miss out, miss stays, miss the boat, miss the mark, misstatement, missy, mistake, mistranslate, misunderstand, misunderstanding, misuse, near-miss, need, not attend, not bear inspection, not hack it, not heed, not listen, not make it, not measure up, not notice, not pass muster, not qualify, nymph, nymphet, old maid, omission, omit, overlook, oversight, pass, pass by, pass over, pass up, pay no attention, pay no mind, piece, pine for, pretermit, procrastinate, require, romp, run short of, sacrifice, schoolgirl, schoolmaid, schoolmiss, see nothing, shirk, skip, skirt, slack, slight, slip, slip up, slipup, spinster, subdeb, subdebutante, subteen, subteener, suffer loss, teenager, teenybopper, think little of, tomato, tomboy, trifle, typo, typographical error, undergo privation, virgin, wander from, want, wench, wink at, wish for, yearn for, young creature, young thing

ROGET THESAURUS

Miss

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.

VB fail, be unsuccessful, not succeed, make vain efforts, do in vain, labor in vain, toil in vain, flunk, lose one's labor, take nothing by one's motion, bring to naught, make nothing of, wash a blackamoor white, roll the stones of Sisyphus, do by halves, lose ground, fall short of, miss, miss one's aim, miss the mark, miss one's footing, miss stays, slip, trip, stumble, make a slip, blunder, make a mess of, make a botch of, bitch it, miscarry, abort, go up like a rocket and come down like the stick, come down in flames, get shot down, reckon without one's host, get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear, limp, halt, hobble, titubate, fall, tumble, lose one's balance, fall to the ground, fall between two stools, flounder, falter, stick in the mud, run aground, split upon a rock, beat one's head against a stone wall, run one's head against a stone wall, knock one's head against a stone wall, dash one's head against a stone wall, break one's back, break down, sink, drown, founder, have the ground cut from under one, get into trouble, get into a mess, get into a scrape, come to grief, go to the wall, go to the dogs, go to pot, lick the dust, bite the dust, be defeated, have the worst of it, lose the day, come off second best, lose, fall a prey to, succumb, not have a leg to stand on, come to nothing, end in smoke, flat out, fall to the ground, fall through, fall dead, fall stillborn, fall flat, slip through one's fingers, hang fire, miss fire, flash in the pan, collapse, topple down, go to wrack and ruin, go amiss, go wrong, go cross, go hard with, go on a wrong tack, go on ill, come off ill, turn out ill, work ill, take a wrong term, take an ugly term, take an ugly turn, take a turn for the worse, be all over with, be all up with, explode, dash one's hopes, defeat the purpose, sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, jump out of the frying pan into the fire, go from the frying pan into the fire.

Loss

VB lose, incur a loss, experience a loss, meet with a loss, miss, mislay, let slip, allow to slip through the fingers, be without, forfeit, get rid of, waste, be lost, lapse.

Infant

N infant, babe, baby, babe in arms, nurseling, suckling, yearling, weanling, papoose, bambino, kid, vagitus, child, bairn, little one, brat, chit, pickaninny, urchin, bantling, bratling, elf, youth, boy, lad, stripling, youngster, youngun, younker, callant, whipster, whippersnapper, whiffet, schoolboy, hobbledehoy, hopeful, cadet, minor, master, scion, sap, seedling, tendril, olive branch, nestling, chicken, larva, chrysalis, tadpole, whelp, cub, pullet, fry, callow, codlin, codling, foetus, calf, colt, pup, foal, kitten, lamb, lambkin, aurelia, caterpillar, cocoon, nymph, nympha, orphan, pupa, staddle, girl, lass, lassie, wench, miss, damsel, demoiselle, maid, maiden, virgin, hoyden, infantine, infantile, puerile, boyish, girlish, childish, babyish, kittenish, baby, newborn, unfledged, new-fledged, callow, in the cradle, in swaddling clothes, in long clothes, in arms, in leading strings, at the breast, in one's teens.

Libertine

N libertine, voluptuary, rake, debauchee, loose fish, rip, rakehell, fast man, intrigant, gallant, seducer, fornicator, lecher, satyr, goat, whoremonger, paillard, adulterer, gay deceiver, Lothario, Don Juan, Bluebeard, chartered libertine, adulteress, advoutress, courtesan, prostitute, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, woman, woman of the town, streetwalker, Cyprian, miss, piece, frail sisterhood, demirep, wench, trollop, trull, baggage, hussy, drab, bitch, jade, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, slut, minx, harridan, unfortunate, unfortunate female, unfortunate woman, woman of easy virtue, wanton, fornicatress, Jezebel, Messalina, Delilah, Thais, Phryne, Aspasia, Lais, lorette, cocotte, petite dame, grisette, demimonde, chippy, sapphist, spiritual wife, white slave, concubine, mistress, doxy, chere amie, bona roba, pimp, procurer, pander, pandar, bawd, conciliatrix, procuress, mackerel, wittol.

Desire

VB desire, wish, wish for, be desirous, have a longing, hope, care for, affect, like, list, take to, cling to, take a fancy to, fancy, prefer, have an eye, have a mind to, find it in one's heart, have a fancy for, set one's eyes upon, cast a sheep's eye upon, look sweet upon, take into one's head, have at heart, be bent upon, set one's cap at, set one's heart upon, set one's mind upon, covet, want, miss, need, feel the want of, would fain have, would fain do, would be glad of, be hungry, have a good appetite, play a good knife and fork, hunger after, thirst after, crave after, lust after, itch after, hanker after, run mad after, raven for, die for, burn to, desiderate, sigh for, cry for, gape for, gasp for, pine for, pant for, languish for, yearn for, long, be on thorns for, hope for, aspire after, catch at, grasp at, jump at, woo, court, solicit, fish for, spell for, whistle for, put up for, ogle, cause desire, create desire, raise desire, excite desire, provoke desire, whet the appetite, appetize, titillate, allure, attract, take one's fancy, tempt, hold out temptation, hold out allurement, tantalize, make one's mouth water, faire venir l'eau a la bouche, gratify desire.

Neglect

VB be negligent, take no care of &c (take care of), neglect, let slip, let go, lay aside, set aside, cst aside, put aside, keep out of sight, put out of sight, lose sight of, overlook, disregard, pass over, pas by, let pass, blink, wink at, connive at, gloss over, take no note of, take no thought of, take no account of, take no notice of, pay no regard to, laisser aller, scamp, trifle, fribble, do by halves, cut, slight, play with, trifle with, slur, skim, skim the surface, effleurer, take a cursory view of, slur over, skip over, jump over, slip over, pretermit, miss, skip, jump, omit, give the go-by to, push aside, pigeonhole, shelve, sink, table, ignore, shut one's eyes to, refuse to hear, turn a deaf ear to, leave out of one's calculation, not attend to, not mind, not trouble oneself about, not trouble one's head about, not trouble oneself with, forget, be caught napping, leave a loose thread, let the grass grow under one's feet, render neglectful, put off one's guard, throw off one's guard, distract, divert.

Error

N error, fallacy, misconception, misapprehension, misstanding, misunderstanding, inexactness, laxity, misconstruction, miscomputation, non sequitur, mis-statement, mis-report, mumpsimus, mistake, miss, fault, blunder, quiproquo, cross purposes, oversight, misprint, erratum, corrigendum, slip, blot, flaw, loose thread, trip, stumble, botchery, slip of the tongue, slip of the lip, Freudian slip, slip of the pen, lapsus linguae, clerical error, bull, haplography, illusion, delusion, snare, false impression, false idea, bubble, self-decit, self-deception, mists of error, heresy, hallucination, false light, dream, fable, bias, misleading, erroneous, untrue, false, devoid of truth, fallacious, apocryphal, unreal, ungrounded, groundless, unsubstantial, heretical, unsound, illogical, inexact, unexact inaccurate, incorrect, indefinite, illusive, illusory, delusive, mock, ideal, spurious, deceitful, perverted, controvertible, unsustainable, unauthenticated, untrustworthy, exploded, refuted, discarded, in error, under an error, mistaken, tripping, out, out in one's reckoning, aberrant, beside the mark, wide of the mark, wide of the truth, way off, far off, astray, on a false scent, on the wrong scent, in the wrong box, outside the ballpark, at cross purposes, all in the wrong, all out, more or less, errare est humanum, mentis gratissimus error, on the dubious waves of error tost, to err is human, to forgive divine, you lie -- under a mistake.

Unintelligibility

VB be unintelligible, require explanation, have a doubtful meaning, pass comprehension, render unintelligible, conceal, darken, confuse, perplex, not understand, lose, lose the clue, miss, not know what to make of, be able to make nothing of, give it up, not be able to account for, not be able to make either head or tail of, be at sea, wonder, see through a glass darkly, not understand one another, play at cross purposes.