Etymology : Middle English, from Old English missan; akin to Old High German missan to miss
Pronunciation : mis
Function : verb
Date : before 12th century
1. title for an unmarried woman, Mademoiselle. failure to hit something; lack; omission, misfire; failure; evasion, avoidance. fail to strike (a target); be late, fail to be present; feel absence, long for; omit; avoid. miss\miss\ , n.; pl. misses (#). [contr. fr. mistress.].
2. a title of courtesy prefixed to the name of a girl or a woman who has not been married. see:
mistress, 5.note: 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.
3. a young unmarried woman or a girl; as, she is a miss of sixteen. gay vanity, with smiles and kisses, was busy 'mongst the maids and misses. awthorn.
4. a kept mistress. see:
mistress,.
5. [obs.].
6. (card playing) 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.miss \miss\ , v. i.
7. to fail to hit; to fly wide; to deviate from the true direction. men observe when things hit, and not when they miss. flying bullets now, to execute his rage, appear too slow; they miss, or sweep but common souls away.
8. to fail to obtain, learn, or find; -- with of. upon the least reflection, we can not miss of them.
9. to go wrong; to err. [obs.] 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. to be absent, deficient, or wanting. [obs.] see:
missing, a. what here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.miss \miss\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. missed ; p. pr. & vb. n. missing.] [as. missan; akin to d. & g. missen, ohg. missan, icel. missa, sw. mista, dan. miste. ?100. see:
mis-, pref.].
11. 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. when a man misses his great end, happiness, he will acknowledge he judged not right.
12. to omit; to fail to have or to do; to get without; to dispense with; -- now seldom applied to persons. she would never miss, one day, a walk so fine, a sight so gay. we cannot miss him; he does make our fire, fetch in our wood.
13. to discover the absence or omission of; to feel the want of; to mourn the loss of; to want. neither missed we anything nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him. xxv. 15,.
14. what by me thou hast lost, thou least shalt miss.
15. A title of courtesy prefixed to the name of a girl or a woman who has not been married.
16. See Mistress, 5.
17. A young unmarried woman or a girl; as, she is a miss of sixteen.
18. A kept mistress.
19. See Mistress, 4.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. To omit; to fail to have or to do; to get without; to dispense with; now seldom applied to persons.
23. To discover the absence or omission of; to feel the want of; to mourn the loss of; to want.
24. To fail to hit; to fly wide; to deviate from the true direction.
25. To fail to obtain, learn, or find; with of.
26. To go wrong; to err.
27. To be absent, deficient, or wanting.
28. The act of missing; failure to hit, reach, find, obtain, etc.
29. Loss; want; felt absence.
30. Mistake; error; fault.
31. Harm from mistake. a failure to hit fail to experience; "Fortunately, I missed the hurricane" fail to reach; "The arrow missed the target" feel or suffer from the lack of; "He misses his mother" fail to reach or get to; "She missed her train" fail to perceive or to catch with the senses or the mind; "I missed that remark"; "She missed his point"; "We lost part of what he said" fail to attend an event or activity; "I missed the concert"; "He missed school for a week" be without; "This soup lacks salt"; "There is something missing in my jewellery box!" be absent; "The child had been missing for a week".
32. Mississippi.