miss

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

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

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To fail to reach or attain; come short of, or go aside or deviate from, as what is aimed at, expected, or desired; fail to hit, catch, or grasp: as, to miss the mark.
2. To fail or come short of, as from lack of capacity or opportunity; fail to be, find, attain to, or accomplish (what one might or should have been, found, attained to, or accomplished): as, he just missed being a poet; you have missed your true vocation.
3. To fail to find, get, or keep; come short of having or receiving; fail to obtain or enjoy: as, to miss the way or one's footing; to miss a meal or an appointment.
4. To become aware of the loss or absence of; find to be lacking; note or deplore the absence of; feel the want or need of: as, to miss one's watch or purse; to miss the comforts of home; to miss the prattle of a child.
5. To fail to note, perceive, or observe; overlook or disregard: as, to miss the best points of a play.
6. To escape; succeed in avoiding.
7. To omit; leave out; skip, as a word in reciting or a note in singing.
8. To do without; dispense with; spare.
9. To lack; be deprived of.
10. To fail of success or effect; miscarry; fail to hit the mark, as in shooting, playing certain games, etc.
11. To fall short; fail in observation or attainment: with of or in.
12. To go astray; go wrong; slip; fall.
13. n. A failure to find, reach, catch, hit, grasp, obtain, or attain; want of success.
14. n. Error; fault; misdeed; wrong-doing; sin.
15. n. Hurt or harm from mistake or accident.
16. n. Loss; want; hence, a feeling of loss.
17. n. Specifically, in printing, a failure on the part of the person feeding the blank sheets to a press to supply a sheet at the right moment for impression. The miss must be corrected by running through several sheets to absorb the ink put on the blanks by the form.
18. n. In the game of loo, an extra hand dealt out, for which the players in turn have the option of exchanging their own.
19. Wrongly; badly; amiss.
20. n. Mistress: a reduced form of this title, which, so reduced, came to be regarded, when prefixed to the name of a young woman or girl, as a sort of diminutive, and was especially applied to young girls (corresponding to master as applied to young boys), older unmarried girls or women being styled mistress even in the lifetime of the mother; later, and in present use, a title prefixed to the name of any unmarried woman or girl. In a restricted use, the title Miss, with the surname only, now distinguishes the eldest daughter of a family, the younger daughters having the title Miss prefixed to their full name: as, Miss Brown, Miss Mary Brown, etc. Some matronly unmarried women, holding independent positions as householders or otherwise, are still styled Mistress (Mrs.) as a mark of special respect, at least in some parts of the United States. In speaking or writing of two or more persons of the same name by the title of Miss, the plural form is often given to the name as a whole, as the Miss Smiths, instead of to the title, as the Misses Smith.
21. n. A young unmarried woman; a girl, in this sense chiefly colloquial; in trade use it has reference to sizes, etc.: as, ladies', misses', and children's shoes.
22. n. A mistress (of a household). [Southern U. S., in negro use.] [In this use a direct abbr. of mistress in the same sense—a slang use, independent of the above.] A kept mistress.
23. n. An abbreviation
24. n. of Mississippi;
25. n. of mission, missionary.

Wiktionary

1. n. A title of respect for a young woman (usually unmarried) with or without a name used.
2. n. An unmarried woman; a girl.
3. v. transitive To fail to hit.
4. v. transitive To feel the absence of someone or something, sometimes with regret.
5. v. transitive To fail to understand or have a shortcoming of perception.
6. v. transitive To fail to attend.
7. v. transitive To be late for something (a means of transportation, a deadline etc).
8. v. sports To fail to score (a goal).
9. n. A failure to hit.
10. n. A failure to obtain or accomplish.
11. n. An act of avoidance.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A title of courtesy prefixed to the name of a girl or a woman who has not been married. See mistress, 5.
2. n. A young unmarried woman or a girl.
3. n. obsolete A kept mistress. See Mistress, 4.
4. n. (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.
5. v. To fail of hitting, reaching, getting, finding, seeing, hearing, etc.
6. v. To omit; to fail to have or to do; to get without; to dispense with; -- now seldom applied to persons.
7. v. To discover the absence or omission of; to feel the want of; to mourn the loss of; to want.
8. v. To fail to hit; to fly wide; to deviate from the true direction.
9. v. To fail to obtain, learn, or find; -- with of.
10. v. obsolete To go wrong; to err.
11. v. obsolete To be absent, deficient, or wanting.
12. n. The act of missing; failure to hit, reach, find, obtain, etc.
13. n. obsolete Loss; want; felt absence.
14. n. Mistake; error; fault.
15. n. obsolete Harm from mistake.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. be absent
2. v. fail to attend an event or activity
3. n. a young woman
4. v. fail to reach
5. n. a form of address for an unmarried woman
6. v. fail to perceive or to catch with the senses or the mind
7. v. fail to reach or get to
8. v. feel or suffer from the lack of
9. n. a failure to hit (or meet or find etc)
10. v. leave undone or leave out
11. v. fail to experience
12. v. be without