lose
Often confused with loose, miss
- 1To cease to have something by misplacing it, being deprived of it, or being unable to keep it, whether a possession, a right, or a part of the body.
Try not to lose your passport while traveling abroad.
She lost her phone somewhere in the crowded station.
UsageSpelled with one o: lose your keys (not
incorrect: looseyour keys). Loose, with two, means not tight.Similarmisplace, mislay, forfeit
Oppositefind, keep, retain, recover
Note
The root sense, and the one behind a famous spelling trap. The word comes from Old English losian, and its vowel should have been the one in go. Blending with loose gave it the sound of loose instead. The two now sound almost alike but mean different things.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Lose derives from Old English losian. en.wiktionary.org
- Regular sound development would have produced the vowel heard in go. en.wiktionary.org
- Conflation with loose explains the modern vowel of lose. en.wiktionary.org
- 2
- 3
- 4To suffer the death of someone one is attached to, such as a relative or friend.
He lost his father to cancer when he was twelve.
Many families lose loved ones during natural disasters.
UsageOften lose someone to an illness, or in a war: she lost her father to cancer.
Note
Bereavement framed as deprivation: the survivor is the subject, and the person who died becomes what was lost. Tennyson's In Memoriam (1850) shows how far the verb stretches. In "better to have loved and lost" it drops the object entirely, and the bare verb carries the whole grief.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Alfred Tennyson wrote In Memoriam, first published in 1850; the first-edition title page bears that year. en.wikisource.org
- The quoted words occur in the poem, with no expressed object after lost. en.wikisource.org
- 5To stray from a path or route, missing it so as to be unable to find the way.
Travelers can lose the road easily once the snow covers the markers.
The shepherd lost the track and had to follow the stream home.
UsageMost common in lose your way; also lose the path or the trail.
Similarmiss
Note
Here what goes missing is the way, not a possession. Shakespeare's The Tempest stretches it to people: "He hath lost his fellows" means he has strayed from his companions, not that they are gone. The walker is the one astray. That sets this apart from losing track of a quarry.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Shakespeare's The Tempest contains the quotation, spoken by Prospero about Ferdinand. gutenberg.org
- The quotation describes separation from companions rather than their death. gutenberg.org
- 6To become unable to follow, keep track of, or keep in sight or mind someone or something, as when losing a guide in a crowd or the thread of an argument.
We lost our guide in the crowded bazaar.
Air traffic controllers can lose a small aircraft on radar during heavy storms.
UsageOften in lose the thread (of a story or argument): I lost the thread of what he was saying.
- 7To shed, discard, or otherwise get rid of something.
Editors told him to lose the long introduction and start with the action.
Let's lose the extra photos on the first page so the layout looks cleaner.
UsageCommon in commands such as lose the tie. It can sound abrupt, so soften requests with please.
Similarditch, drop, cut, scrap, dump
Note
Discarding is treated as if the thing simply went missing, which can make it sound light or coy. Martine's Sexual Astrology (1976) puts scare quotes around "loses" for a woman who sheds her bikini top.
- 8To cause someone to be deprived of something; to cost a person a thing they might otherwise have had.
A single scandal can lose a candidate the support of an entire region.
That missed deadline lost the firm its biggest client.
UsageTakes two objects, like cost: the cause, then the person, then the thing: the mistake lost him the job.
Similarcost
Note
Richard Baxter's The Saints' Everlasting Rest (1650) has "lost me this glory," and Colin Jones's The Great Nation (2002) has "lost Catholicism … any semblance of a claim." The pattern holds across the centuries. The subject is the cause, usually an act or event, rather than the loser.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Richard Baxter wrote The Saints' Everlasting Rest. gutenberg.org
- The Saints' Everlasting Rest was first published in 1650. lutterworth.com
- Baxter's work contains the words “lost me this glory.” gutenberg.org
- Colin Jones wrote The Great Nation, first published in 2002. ci.nii.ac.jp
- The Great Nation contains the quoted wording, with an omission marked by an ellipsis. en.wiktionary.org
Less common meanings
- 9To stop displaying or to overcome a behavior or emotion.
She worked hard to lose her shyness around new people.
With time he lost his fear of flying entirely.
UsageTakes a feeling or habit: lose your fear, lose your shyness. But lose your temper means become angry.
- 10To cause a pursuer or follower to be unable to keep track of one any longer.
The getaway driver tried to lose the patrol car on the back roads.
The fox lost the hounds among the rocks along the riverbank.
UsageThe subject is the one escaping: the thief lost the police. The chaser, by contrast, loses track of someone.
Similarevade, elude, shake, escape, outrun
Note
The same chase seen from the other end. In the pursuer's sense, the policeman loses the robber; here the robber loses the police. Only context tells which side did the losing, so a bare "we lost them" needs the story around it.
- 11To pay or owe a wager as the result of an unsuccessful bet or gamble.
Gamblers who chase their losses often lose far more than they intended.
She lost a week's wages on a single hand of cards.
UsageSay lose money on a bet or race: he lost fifty dollars on the last race.
Similarforfeit, squander, blow, drop
Oppositewin
- 12Of a clock or watch, to run slower than expected, falling behind the correct time.
Older mechanical clocks tend to lose a minute or two each day.
Her wristwatch lost almost an hour during the cold night.
UsageUsually with an amount: it loses five minutes a week. The opposite is gain; with no amount, say it runs slow.
Oppositegain
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English "losen", from Old English "losian", a verb related to Old English "los" ("loss"). Its modern pronunciation with an /uː/ sound, rather than the expected form, arose from confusion with the word "loose".
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- Lose comes from Middle English losen, from Old English losian. en.wiktionary.org
- The modern /uː/ pronunciation arose through conflation with loose, replacing the expected vowel. en.wiktionary.org