From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Miss \Miss\ (m[i^]s), noun; pl. {Misses} (m[i^]s"s[e^]z). [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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Miss \Miss\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Missed} (m[i^]st); 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; as, to miss an absent loved one. --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}.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Miss \Miss\ (m[i^]s), verb (used without an object)
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.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
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}]
verb
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: be absent; "The child had been missing for a week"
9: fail to experience; "Fortunately, I missed the hurricane" [syn: {escape}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
197 Moby Thesaurus words for "miss": abandon, avoid, babe, baby, bachelor girl, be bereaved of, be blind to, be caught out, be inattentive, be unwary, bird, blink at, blunder, broad, bungle, chick, clerical error, coed, colleen, come short, connive at, corrigendum, cut, cutie, dame, damoiselle, damsel, default, demoiselle, discount, disregard, dodge, doll, drop, err, erratum, error, escape, evade, fail, failure, fall down, fall short, fault, faute, filly, foozle, forfeit, forget, forgo, frail, gal, girl, girlie, give no heed, go amiss, go astray, go astray from, goldbrick, goof, goof off, groupie, hear nothing, heifer, hoyden, human error, ignore, incur loss, jeune fille, jill, jump, junior miss, kiss good-bye, lack, lass, lassie, leave, leave loose ends, leave out, leave undone, let alone, let be, let dangle, let go, let pass, let slip, little missy, long for, lose, lose out, mademoiselle, maid, maiden, make light of, malinger, misapprehend, misapprehension, miscalculation, miscarriage, miscarry, misconceive, misconception, misconstrue, miscount, misdeal, misexplain, misfire, misidentification, misinterpret, misjudgment, mislay, misplace, misplay, misprint, misquotation, misread, misreport, miss out, miss stays, miss the boat, miss the mark, misstatement, missy, mistake, mistranslate, misunderstand, misunderstanding, misuse, near-miss, need, not attend, not bear inspection, not hack it, not heed, not listen, not make it, not measure up, not notice, not pass muster, not qualify, nymph, nymphet, old maid, omission, omit, overlook, oversight, pass, pass by, pass over, pass up, pay no attention, pay no mind, piece, pine for, pretermit, procrastinate, require, romp, run short of, sacrifice, schoolgirl, schoolmaid, schoolmiss, see nothing, shirk, skip, skirt, slack, slight, slip, slip up, slipup, spinster, subdeb, subdebutante, subteen, subteener, suffer loss, teenager, teenybopper, think little of, tomato, tomboy, trifle, typo, typographical error, undergo privation, virgin, wander from, want, wench, wink at, wish for, yearn for, young creature, young thing
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
20 Moby Thesaurus words for "Miss": Frau, Fraulein, Mistress, Mlle, Mme, Mmes, dame, dona, donna, lady, madam, madame, mademoiselle, mem-sahib, mesdames, senhora, senhorita, signora, signorina, vrouw
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
MISS, noun 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.
From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:
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