Definition

1. 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.

2. 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.

Verb

1. be set at a disadvantage
   • This author really suffers in translation
2. 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
3. retreat
4. fail to get or obtain
   • I lost the opportunity to spend a year abroad
5. 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
6. allow to go out of sight
   • The detective lost the man he was shadowing after he had to stop at a red light
7. miss from one's possessions; lose sight of
   • I've lost my glasses again!
8. place (something) where one cannot find it again
   • I misplaced my eyeglasses
9. 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
10. fail to win
    • We lost the battle but we won the war
11. 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