Miss

English Meaning

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

1. To fail to hit, reach, catch, meet, or otherwise make contact with.
2. To fail to perceive, understand, or experience: completely missed the point of the film.
3. To fail to accomplish, achieve, or attain (a goal).
4. To fail to attend or perform: never missed a day of work.
5. To leave out; omit.
6. To let go by; let slip: miss a chance.
7. To escape or avoid: narrowly missed crashing into the tree.
8. To discover the absence or loss of: I missed my book after getting off the bus.
9. To feel the lack or loss of: Do you miss your family?
10. To fail to hit or otherwise make contact with something: fired the final shot and missed again.
11. To be unsuccessful; fail.
12. To misfire, as an internal-combustion engine.
13. A failure to hit, succeed, or find.
14. The misfiring of an engine.
15. miss fire To fail to discharge. Used of a firearm.
16. miss fire To fail to achieve the anticipated result.
17. miss out on To lose a chance for: missed out on the promotion.
18. miss the boat Informal To fail to avail oneself of an opportunity.
19. miss the boat Informal To fail to understand.
20. Used as a courtesy title before the surname or full name of a girl or single woman. See Usage Note at Ms.
21. Used as a form of polite address for a girl or young woman: I beg your pardon, miss.
22. A young unmarried woman.
23. Used in informal titles for a young woman to indicate the epitomizing of an attribute or activity: Miss Organization; Miss Opera.
24. A series of clothing sizes for women and girls of average height and proportions.