Definition: miss

Source: WordNet (r) 1.7

miss
     n 1: a young woman; "a young lady of 18" [syn: girl, missy, young
          lady, young woman, fille]
     2: a failure to hit (or meet or find etc) [syn: misfire]
     v 1: 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" [syn: lose]
     2: feel or suffer from the lack of: "He misses his mother"
     3: fail to attend an event or activity: "I missed the concert";
        "He missed school for a week" [ant: attend]
     4: leave undone or leave out; "How could I miss that typo?";
        "The workers on the conveyor belt miss one out of ten"
        [syn: neglect, pretermit, omit, drop, leave out,
         overlook, overleap] [ant: attend to]
     5: fail to reach or get to: "She missed her train"
     6: be without; "This soup lacks salt"; "There is something
        missing in my jewellery box!" [syn: lack] [ant: have]
     7: fail to reach; "The arrow missed the target" [ant: hit]
     8: fail to hit the intended target [ant: hit]
     9: be absent; "The child had been missing for a week"
     10: fail to experience; "Fortunately, I missed the hurricane"
         [syn: escape]

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Miss \Miss\, n.; pl. Misses. [Contr. fr. mistress.]
   1. 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.

   2. 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.                 --Cawthorn.

   3. A kept mistress. See Mistress, 4. [Obs.] --Evelyn.

   4. (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. 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. [root]100. See Mis-,
   pref.]
   1. 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.      --Locke.

   2. 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.                         --Prior.

            We cannot miss him; he does make our fire, Fetch in
            our wood.                             --Shak.

   3. To discover the absence or omission of; to feel the want
      of; to mourn the loss of; to want. --Shak.

            Neither missed we anything . . . Nothing was missed
            of all that pertained unto him.       --1 Sam. xxv.
                                                  15, 21.

            What by me thou hast lost, thou least shalt miss.
                                                  --Milton.

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

Miss \Miss\, v. i.
   1. To fail to hit; to fly wide; to deviate from the true
      direction.

            Men observe when things hit, and not when they miss.
                                                  --Bacon.

            Flying bullets now, To execute his rage, appear too
            slow; They miss, or sweep but common souls away.
                                                  --Waller.

   2. To fail to obtain, learn, or find; -- with of.

            Upon the least reflection, we can not miss of them.
                                                  --Atterbury.

   3. 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?               --Spenser.

   4. To be absent, deficient, or wanting. [Obs.] See Missing,
      a.

            What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
                                                  --Shak.

Miss \Miss\, n.
   1. The act of missing; failure to hit, reach, find, obtain,
      etc.

   2. Loss; want; felt absence. [Obs.]

            There will be no great miss of those which are lost.
                                                  --Locke.

   3. Mistake; error; fault. --Shak.

            He did without any great miss in the hardest points
            of grammar.                           --Ascham.

   4. Harm from mistake. [Obs.] --Spenser.

Source: V.E.R.A. -- Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms December 2001

MISS
        Mecklenburg Internet Service System (ISP)

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.