Miss by a mile


Fall short, fail by a considerable amount, as in Your guess as to the winner missed by a mile. This expression employs miss in the sense of “fail to hit something aimed at,” a usage dating from the late 1400s, and by a mile for a great distance or interval, so used since Shakespeare’s day.

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  • Missed abortion

    missed abortion n. An abortion in which the fetus dies but is retained within the uterus for two months or longer.

  • Missed

    [mis] /mɪs/ verb (used with object) 1. to fail to hit or strike: to miss a target. 2. to fail to encounter, meet, catch, etc.: to miss a train. 3. to fail to take advantage of: to miss a chance. 4. to fail to be present at or for: to miss a day of school. […]

  • Missed labor

    missed labor n. A condition in which a pregnant woman experiences uterine contractions at the normal term, but the contractions soon stop, and the fetus is retained, usually lifeless, within the uterus for an indefinite period.

  • Misseem

    [mis-seem] /mɪsˈsim/ verb (used with object), Archaic. 1. .

  • Missel

    n. Old English mistel “basil, mistletoe,” from Proto-Germanic *mikhstilaz (cf. Old Saxon mistil, Dutch mistel, Old High German mistil, German Mistel, Swedish mistel), of unknown origin.


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