lose

/lu:z/

Học thuật

Thân thiện

The child loses his red balloon in the park.

Definition

Verb (transitive):
- To cease to have or possess something, either physically or abstractly.
- To fail to win a game, competition, or conflict.
- To fail to keep, maintain, or control.
- To be deprived of a person, typically through death or separation.
- To fail to see, hear, or understand something.
- To cause someone to fail to get or obtain something.
Verb (intransitive):
- To be defeated or fail to be successful.
- To suffer financial loss; to operate at a deficit.
- (Of a timepiece) To operate slowly, showing a time later than the correct time.

Usage and Examples

Ceasing to have/possess:
- I often lose my keys.
- She lost her confidence after the criticism.
Failing to win:
- Our team lost the final match.
- He lost the election by a narrow margin.
Failing to keep/maintain:
- The company is losing its market share.
- He lost his balance and fell.
Being deprived of a person:
- She lost her father at a young age.
Failing to perceive/understand:
- I'm sorry, I lost you. Could you explain that again?
- We lost part of the conversation due to the noise.
Causing failure to obtain:
- His rude comment lost him the job offer.
Suffering defeat (intransitive):
- We played well but still lost.
Suffering financial loss (intransitive):
- The business lost heavily in its first year.
Operating slowly (intransitive):
- This old watch loses about a minute a day.

Advanced Usage and Nuances

To lose oneself in something: To become so absorbed in an activity that one is unaware of anything else.
- He would lose himself in a good book for hours.
To lose ground: To fall behind or become less successful.
- The company is losing ground to its competitors.
To lose heart: To become discouraged.
- Don't lose heart; you'll succeed next time.
To lose sight of:
- Literal: To no longer be able to see something.
  - We lost sight of the boat in the fog.
- Figurative: To forget or stop considering an important fact or goal.
  - We must not lose sight of our original objectives.
To lose touch/contact: To cease communication with someone.
- We lost touch after university.
To lose one's temper/patience: To become angry or impatient.
- He lost his temper during the argument.
To lose one's way:
- Literal: To become lost.
  - The hikers lost their way in the forest.
- Figurative: To become confused about one's purpose or direction in life.
  - After leaving college, he felt he had lost his way.

Variants and Related Words

Loser (noun): A person or thing that loses or has lost something, especially a game or contest.
Loss (noun): The fact or process of losing something or someone; the state of being lost.
Lost (adjective): Unable to find one's way; not knowing one's whereabouts. Also used to describe something that can no longer be found or something that has been taken away or destroyed.
Losing (adjective): Failing to win; characterized by defeat.

Synonyms

Mislay, Misplace: To lose temporarily by forgetting where something was put.
Forfeit: To lose or be deprived of as a penalty for wrongdoing.
Sacrifice: To give up something valued for the sake of other considerations.
Squander, Waste: To lose something valuable in a reckless or foolish manner.
Succumb, Yield: To fail to resist pressure or temptation; to be defeated.

Phrasal Verbs

Lose out (to): To not get an advantage or benefit that others get; to be disadvantaged.
- Small businesses often lose out to large corporations.
Lose out on: To fail to get or have an opportunity or benefit.
- She lost out on the promotion.
Lose yourself in: (See "Advanced Usage" above).

Idioms and Common Phrases

A losing battle: A struggle that seems certain to end in failure.
- Trying to keep the garden weed-free in summer is a losing battle.
Lose face: To be humiliated; to lose the respect of others.
- The scandal caused the minister to lose face.
Lose your head: To panic or lose self-control.
- In an emergency, it's important not to lose your head.
Lose it: (Informal) To lose control of one's emotions, especially by becoming very angry or starting to laugh/cry uncontrollably.
- When he saw the mess, he just lost it.
Lose sleep over something: To worry a lot about something.
- It was a minor mistake; don't lose any sleep over it.
Lost cause: A person or thing that can no longer hope to succeed or be changed for the better.
- Trying to convince him is a lost cause.
Lost in translation: When the meaning or quality of something is not successfully communicated when translated into another language.
- The humor of the joke was lost in translation.

The child loses his red balloon in the park.

Verb

be set at a disadvantage
- This author really suffers in translation
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
retreat
fail to get or obtain
- I lost the opportunity to spend a year abroad
fail to make money in a business; make a loss or fail to profit
- I lost thousands of dollars on that bad investment!
- The company turned a loss after the first year
allow to go out of sight
- The detective lost the man he was shadowing after he had to stop at a red light
miss from one's possessions; lose sight of
- I've lost my glasses again!
place (something) where one cannot find it again
- I misplaced my eyeglasses
suffer the loss of a person through death or removal
- She lost her husband in the war
- The couple that wanted to adopt the child lost her when the biological parents claimed her
fail to win
- We lost the battle but we won the war
fail to keep or to maintain; cease to have, either physically or in an abstract sense
- She lost her purse when she left it unattended on her seat

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