lose
Other forms: lost; losing; loses
The verb to lose means something has gone missing. Maybe it's your car keys. Maybe it's points in a game. Maybe it's the love of your life. Sorry about that.
You can physically lose something by misplacing it, or you can lose your pride in a competition. You can lose a game, you can lose your library book, you can lose money, you can lose your business, you can lose sight of your child, you can even lose your mind — basically, you can lose just about anything. Losing something is usually not a good thing, unless it's that annoying boyfriend or weight.
Definitions of lose
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fail to keep or to maintain; cease to have, either physically or in an abstract sense
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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”
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type of:
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suffer
experience (emotional) pain
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suffer
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place (something) where one cannot find it again
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miss from one's possessions; lose sight of“I've lost my glasses again!”
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allow to go out of sight“The detective lost the man he was shadowing after he had to stop at a red light”
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fail to perceive or to catch with the senses or the mind
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fail to win“We lost the battle but we won the war”
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Antonyms:
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win
be the winner in a contest or competition; be victorious
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types:
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go down
be defeated
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drop
lose (a game)
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remain down, take the count
be counted out; remain down while the referee counts to ten
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drop one's serve
lose a game in which one is serving
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win
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fail to get or obtain
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fail to make money in a business; make a loss or fail to profit“I lost thousands of dollars on that bad investment!”
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synonyms:
turn a loss
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Antonyms:
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profit, turn a profit
make a profit; gain money or materially
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break even
make neither profit nor loss
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profit, turn a profit
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retreat
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synonyms:
drop off, fall back, fall behind, recede
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Antonyms:
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advance, gain, gain ground, get ahead, make headway, pull ahead, win
obtain advantages, such as points, etc.
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type of:
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regress, retrograde, retrogress
get worse or fall back to a previous condition
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advance, gain, gain ground, get ahead, make headway, pull ahead, win
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be set at a disadvantage
Pronunciation
US
/luz/
UK
/luz/
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Commonly confused words
lose / loose
Lose sounds like snooze. If you lose something, you don’t have it anymore. Add an “o” and loose rhymes with goose and describes something that’s not attached.
Word Family
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