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lose
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
lose
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a losing battle (=one that is going to fail)
▪ She was fighting a losing battle to stop herself from crying.
a party wins/loses an election
▪ Do you think the Labour Party can win the next election?
a tree loses/sheds its leaves (=the leaves come off the tree)
▪ Most trees shed their leaves in the autumn.
a wasted/lost/missed opportunity (=one you do not use)
▪ Many people see the failed talks as a missed opportunity for peace.
be lost at seaformal (= be drowned in the sea)
▪ His father had been lost at sea three months before.
be on a winning/losing streak
▪ Celtic are on a six-game winning streak.
gain/lose height (=move higher or lower in the sky)
▪ The plane was rapidly losing height.
lose a baby (=have a baby that dies when it is born too soon)
▪ She was three months pregnant when she lost the baby.
lose a battle
▪ a brave little girl who lost her battle against cancer
lose a bet
▪ If I have a bet, I always lose it.
lose a customer
▪ The company has lost some big customers in the last two years.
lose a fortune (=lose a lot of money)
▪ He lost a fortune in an unwise business deal.
lose a majority
▪ The Republicans lost their narrow majority in Congress at the midterm elections.
lose a match
▪ They lost the match, despite playing very well.
lose a point
▪ If he’s got the answer wrong, he loses 250 points.
lose a power
▪ He was a brilliant speaker, who never lost the power to influence people.
lose a sale (=fail to sell something)
▪ Harry lost the sale because he was not persistent enough.
lose a seat
▪ She lost her seat at the last election.
lose a tooth (=no longer have it)
▪ Many of the men had lost all their teeth by the age of 40.
lose all sense of sth
▪ He seemed to have lost all sense of proportion.
lose an election
▪ If the party loses the election, they may decide they need a new leader.
lose blood (=from a cut or wound)
▪ He had lost a lot of blood and was very weak.
lose by a large/small etc margin
▪ He lost by only a narrow margin.
lose command
▪ The enemy was losing command of the situation.
lose confidence in sb/sth
▪ Employees are losing confidence in the company.
lose consciousness (=go into a type of deep sleep that is not normal)
▪ As she fell, she hit her head and lost consciousness for several minutes.
lose contact (=no longer see someone or hear from them)
▪ She went to live in Australia and I lost contact with her.
lose control of the car (=no longer be able to control its direction)
▪ He lost control of the car on a sharp bend.
lose control of
▪ Excessive drinking can make you lose control of your own life.
lose credibility
▪ Both of our major political parties are losing credibility.
lose faith
▪ Local people have lost faith in the police.
lose impact (=have less effect)
▪ The picture loses impact when it is reduced in size.
lose interest in sth (=stop being interested)
▪ Tilda had lost interest in what was being said.
lose its importance
▪ The island lost its importance when trade routes changed.
lose momentum (=to start to become less successful)
▪ The team seems to have lost its momentum.
lose money (=not make a profit, so that you then have less money)
▪ The movie didn’t attract audiences and lost money for the studio.
lose patience (with sb)
▪ Eventually his family lost patience with him and his irresponsible behaviour.
lose perspective
▪ People sometimes lose perspective on what is really important in life.
lose respect for sb (=no longer respect them)
▪ She had lost all respect for him.
lose sb’s address
▪ I wanted to write to him, but I’ve lost his address.
lose sb’s respect (=no longer be respected by them)
▪ Once a child knows you have lied, you will lose their respect.
lose speed (=slow down without wanting to)
▪ The engine made a strange sound and we lost speed.
lose the championship
▪ We lost the championship on the last day.
lose the initiative
▪ The government must not lose the initiative in the fight against terrorism.
lose the knack
▪ He proved that he hadn't lost the knack for scoring goals.
lose the will to do sth
▪ The country's troops had lost the will to fight.
lose touch with reality (=no longer know about ordinary things or what is possible)
▪ If all you have is the show-business world, you kind of lose touch with reality.
lose your accent (=no longer speak with an accent)
▪ After five years in Europe, Ricky had lost his American accent.
lose your appetite
▪ She was so miserable that she completely lost her appetite.
lose your authority
▪ He’s worried that he is losing his authority over the party.
lose your balance (=become unsteady)
▪ She nearly lost her balance as the bus suddenly moved forward.
lose (your) concentration
▪ Halfway through the game, he seemed to lose concentration.
lose (your) confidence
▪ He’d been out of work for six months and had lost all his confidence.
lose your deposit (=not get it back)
▪ If there is any damage to the apartment, you may lose your deposit.
lose your edge (=lose an advantage that you had)
▪ He’s had a lot of injuries and lost a lot of his competitive edge.
lose (your) enthusiasm
▪ The diet started well, but I lost enthusiasm after a while.
lose your grip (=accidentally let go of something)
▪ He shoved Higgins out of the way without losing his grip on the gun.
lose your hair (=become bald)
▪ He was a small, round man who was losing his hair.
lose your hearing (=become unable to hear)
▪ He lost his hearing as a child after suffering scarlet fever.
lose your job
▪ At least there’s no danger of you losing your job.
lose your licence
▪ The police caught him driving while drunk and he will now lose his licence.
lose your life (=die)
▪ Hundreds of people lost their lives on the first day of the fighting.
lose your memory (=become unable to remember things that happened in the past)
▪ The blow on the head caused him to lose his memory.
lose your nerve (=suddenly lose the courage or confidence to do something)
▪ I wanted to ask him the question, but I lost my nerve.
lose your sense of sth
▪ I think I’m losing my sense of smell.
lose your sense of sth
▪ Come on! Have you lost your sense of humour?
lose your sight
▪ As the result of a severe illness, she lost her sight at the age of twelve.
lose your temper (=become angry)
▪ It was hot and I was beginning to lose my temper.
lose your virginity (=have sex for the first time)
lose your voice (=lose the ability to speak, for example when you have a cold)
▪ I'll have to whisper because I've lost my voice.
lose your way
▪ He lost his way in the fog.
lose/give up/abandon hope (=stop hoping)
▪ After so long without any word from David, Margaret was starting to lose hope.
lose...inhibitions
▪ People tend to lose their inhibitions when they’ve drunk a lot of alcohol.
lose...livelihood
▪ Bates says he will lose his livelihood if his driving licence is taken away.
lose/miss your footing (=be unable to keep standing or balancing)
▪ The girl lost her footing and fell about 150 feet.
lose/shed an image (=get rid of it)
▪ The party struggled to lose its image of being somewhat old-fashioned.
lose/shed weight
▪ She lost a lot of weight when she was ill.
losing...sanity
▪ She wondered if she was losing her sanity.
lost control of himself
▪ Davidson lost control of himself and started yelling.
lost control of
▪ The Democrats lost control of Congress in the last election.
lost her looks (=became less attractive)
▪ When she lost her looks she found it difficult to get work.
lost its savour
▪ Life seemed to have lost its savour for him.
lost productivity
▪ It cost the country $4 million in lost productivity.
lost property
▪ Thankfully, someone had handed my bag into Lost Property.
lost revenues
▪ Strikes have cost £20 million in lost revenues.
lost the thread (=was no longer able to understand it)
▪ His mind wandered, and he lost the thread of what she was saying .
lost touch with (=stopped writing or talking to)
▪ I lost touch with Julie after we moved.
lost...composure
▪ He has lost his composure under the pressure of the situation.
lost...touch (=lost his ability)
▪ King obviously hasn’t lost his touch – his latest book sold in the millions.
lost...track of time
▪ I just lost all track of time.
miss/lose a chance (=not use an opportunity)
▪ He missed a chance to score just before half time.
miss/lose an opportunity (=not do something you have a chance to do)
▪ Dwyer never missed an opportunity to criticize her.
retain/lose your dignity
▪ Old people need to retain their dignity and independence.
stand to gain/lose/win/make
▪ What do firms think they stand to gain by merging?
sth gets lost in the post
▪ I'm afraid the cheque must have got lost in the post.
sth has lost a button
▪ His favourite shirt had lost a button.
sth loses its charm
▪ He was getting older, and travel was losing its charm.
the winning/losing team
▪ Everyone on the winning team will get a medal.
win/lose a case (=be successful or unsuccessful in proving someone guilty or not guilty)
▪ Lomax was a brilliant lawyer who had never lost a case.
win/lose a contest
▪ He won a public-speaking contest at his school.
win/lose a fight
▪ He always won every fight he was in at school.
win/lose a game
▪ A.C. Milan won the game with a last-minute goal.
▪ Arsenal lost the game because of a mistake by their goalkeeper.
win/lose a lawsuit
▪ She won a discrimination lawsuit against her former company.
win/lose a race
▪ He did not win another race that season.
win/lose a war
▪ The Allies had won the war.
▪ What would have happened if we’d lost the war?
win/lose an appeal
▪ Unless she wins her appeal she will be imprisoned.
win/lose an argument
▪ The party hopes to win the argument about how to reform the health system.
▪ The first one who resorts to violence is usually the one who’s lost the argument.
win/lose by 5/10 etc points
▪ We only lost by two points.
win/lose on points (=win or lose a fight because of the judges’ decision)
▪ He was knocked down twice, before losing on points.
win/lose the toss
▪ Malory won the toss and will serve.
your lost youth (=the time long ago when you were young)
▪ He wept for his lost youth.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
for ever
▪ Many of these will be lost forever, before they have even been named.
▪ But that Spring Hill may be lost forever, some residents say.
▪ In the process, many irrecoverable secrets of nature are being lost forever.
▪ It's estimated that each day another three species are lost forever.
never
▪ It has never lost an artist from its record label, supposedly because it consists of many small and friendly individual companies.
▪ First, and foremost, the Cardinal almost never lose at home.
▪ I've never lost my belief in myself.
▪ Some one else invested your profit-sharing for you, and made sure that you never lost and almost always gained.
▪ Here's the chap on the white horse again, he never loses his feathers.
▪ Once humans had invented civilization, they never lost it.
▪ He never, never, never loses control.
▪ Still, I never lost that desire to be-come a cheerleader.
■ NOUN
baby
▪ It makes you so sick that you lose the baby.
▪ She must not lose Peter's baby.
▪ He took care of this lost baby.
▪ A woman stood up and sang her song to her lost baby.
▪ Francis is among a number of hospitals nationwide now offering ceremonies to help families remember their lost babies.
balance
▪ She nearly lost her balance, and cried out in terror.
▪ He put his arms around her waist and pulled her so hard she lost her balance.
▪ If all banks sell securities, they will all lose deposits and balances as their own customers buy securities.
▪ Dropping the wing, Mungo swung round, losing his balance.
▪ Finally I tried from the east, lost my balance, and fell in.
▪ Within a few moments you will start to lose your balance.
▪ His mind slipped into some thought of his son, and he lost his balance.
battle
▪ Although already gravely ill, she posed for this graduation picture just days before losing her battle against cancer.
▪ Nor can we underestimate the consequences of losing the battle to poor eating and exercise habits.
▪ The 61-year-old electrician died on Monday night after losing a long battle against cancer.
▪ In 1986, Lynott lost the battle and passed on.
▪ But they were losing the battle.
▪ It may be, in the long run, more productive to lose the battle but win the war.
▪ Alone and imprisoned, Mungo lost the battle with his imagination.
▪ You may be carrying the scars of lost battles and broken dreams.
chance
▪ He also knew that the next few minutes could lose what chance had so miraculously delivered up to him at long last.
▪ The obvious implication is that many asylum seekers may miss the deadline and lose the chance to appeal.
▪ Although the company lost, chances of success would be greatly improved under the proposed legislation.
▪ But by failing to register in time you will have lost the chance of being given preference in allocation.
▪ Players had to check their egos or lose their last chance.
▪ If you hesitate too long you may lose your chance.
confidence
▪ Meanwhile, prison conditions have deteriorated and the public has lost confidence in the criminal justice system.
▪ He was beginning to believe the coaches had lost confidence in him.
▪ He was a gentle man by nature, but he would suddenly fall into a depression and lose all confidence in himself.
▪ Almost overnight I seemed to lose all my confidence.
▪ Conversation was lagging, and it seemed to me that Mrs McLaren was tiring and might lose confidence.
▪ Employees themselves are losing confidence in the company, analysts said.
▪ It only takes a couple of players to have mediocre starts for them and they will be down there and lose confidence.
▪ The government lost will and confidence.
game
▪ Drake was the only team that offered a real challenge, and Oregon lost that game.
▪ We haven't lost in 13 league games 8 of which are wins.
▪ It would have been very easy for the Cats to lose that game.
▪ The other big losers of the day were the Houston Oilers, who had already lost games they should have won.
▪ The club has lost six of nine games, three in a row and all three this spring to the Braves.
▪ The Bruins had lost tournament games as favorites three times in the previous four years.
▪ His teams lost all five games.
grip
▪ They decide to go, too, but Frank has problems manoeuvring the car, whose tyres keep losing their grip.
▪ If Perelman succeeded, Gutfreund, for the first time, would lose his grip on the firm.
▪ Half way through, the film loses its grip on the day-to-day reality in Northern Ireland.
▪ Niyazov does not appear to be losing his grip.
▪ I had made loops to go over her wrists, I told her, so that she wouldn't lose her grip.
▪ Even if front and rear wheels are losing grip, the unit favors the set with the least amount of grab.
▪ He began a forlorn final game by losing his grip on the racket altogether.
▪ If the car begins to fishtail, the back wheels have lost grip.
home
▪ They lost 5-1 at home to Northampton.
▪ The people who are losing their homes belong to a settled community with centuries-old traditions.
▪ Many of these immigrants had suffered the loss of their wealth and privilege in addition to the trauma of losing their home.
▪ But they've lost eight home matches this season, one of the worst records in the division.
▪ He lost his parents and home, he was separated from his siblings.
▪ I can not understand people who continue to vote Conservative after they have lost their homes or their jobs, or both.
▪ And it would be a major upset for the Minutemen to lose a game at home.
job
▪ Was it fear of losing her job?
▪ In the end, Offerman lost his job.
▪ His brother lost his job, and descended into the abyss.
▪ At the same time, white-collar spenders fear losing their jobs.
▪ A bad interviewer can give a potentially excellent employee such a negative impression that he or she loses interest in the job.
▪ Many strikers had lost their jobs, through permanent replacements.
▪ This means telling workers that they may well lose their jobs if the company can no longer make effective use of them.
▪ So much so that the picture editor, who had approved it, lost his job.
leg
▪ This was in the heady days of 1978, when I first lost my leg, when very flared trousers were in.
▪ One poor fellow.... lost both legs by a cannon ball.
▪ In real combat he would have lost at least one leg at the knee.
▪ I know he lost his legs first, and then his fingers-he died alone and it hurt like hell.
▪ Four people lost one or both legs, and another lost an arm.
▪ My grandfather had lost his leg in a stockyard accident.
▪ Bouchard lost a leg to flesh-eating bacteria in 1994.
▪ Why, in losing his leg and the few horses in his charge, he had lost his boyish good humor.
life
▪ Secondly the poem speaks of the lost opportunities for life among those who once passed on the old road but are dead.
▪ It was no simple task to complete; one workman, thrown into the raging rapids below almost lost his life.
▪ But you have nothing to lose - your life was being made a misery anyway.
▪ We mourn the tens of millions of people who lost their lives.
▪ You lose control of your life.
▪ Some lost their lives in panic while trying to scramble aboard crowded ships.
▪ They begin to lose life and become puppets.
▪ But it was a frightful ordeal and six of the crew lost their lives there.
lot
▪ The bullet was deep in my arm, and I lost a lot of blood.
▪ We had a lot of adversity last year, some injuries, and we lost a lot of close games.
▪ It also gives especial aid to poorer areas that lost a lot of income in the changeover.
▪ You have to lose lots of frontal lobe, or lots of language cortex.
▪ We lost a lot of men.
▪ Good, I hope you lose a lot more sleep.
▪ He's lost a lot of blood.
▪ Working a regular job, you lose a lot of time with them.
love
▪ Some people, and you may be one, slowly and partially pick up their lives after losing their love.
▪ She was not just a lost love, or a found love either.
▪ The centre court crowd seemed to have lost their love for Venus.
▪ Other parents fear that they may displease, and therefore lose the love of, their children if they are too strict.
▪ To lose love through death is hard but understandable; to lose love and not understand why is intolerable.
▪ She never lost her love of the West, and I admire that.
▪ To lose love through death is hard but understandable; to lose love and not understand why is intolerable.
▪ I lost the love of acting and singing.
memory
▪ If they break off their constant peregrinations, their voice seizes up and they lose their memory.
▪ My fingerprints will not lose their memory.
▪ As a result of the instability and interactions, the pattern rapidly loses any detailed memory of its initial state.
▪ Is she losing her memory as well as her teeth?
▪ In losing its design memory, it seems, Ford forgot what customers wanted.
▪ He has a disease that causes him to lose his memory.
▪ I read about it in Vogue ... how it makes you lose your memory.
▪ They lose long-ago memories as well as failing to store new memones.
million
▪ Since 1991, when it lost $ 151 million, National has improved each year, earning $ 264 million in 1995.
▪ The deal went sour and Coles lost A $ 18 million.
▪ Analysts had estimated the Arlington-based airline would lose $ 75 million, or $ 1.12 per share.
▪ The derivatives trading business lost $ 32 million in the quarter, compared with $ 28 million in profits a year earlier.
▪ Loan were sued by the federal government for lax oversight, which the government said caused taxpayers to lose $ 941 million.
▪ Apple recently lost $ 69 million in what should have been a profitable Christmas quarter.
▪ In the first nine months of last year, it lost $ 29 million.
▪ At this rate, Huizenga proposed, he might lose $ 30 million for the season.
mind
▪ He lost sleep, his mind churning, piling up imaginary complaints and magnifying them.
▪ The musicians are completely losing their minds.
▪ Is Roberto correct when he insists that he is innocent and she has lost her mind?
▪ What is not bogus is the position Selda Soyturk is in today because a guy lost his mind behind the wheel.
▪ We start to lose control of our minds in the same way that muscular tension is often out of our control.
▪ Some victims feel they are losing their minds or are about to die.
▪ One was suffering from deep depression, the other believed he was beginning to lose control of his mind.
▪ PipThe Negro cabin boy who loses his mind when abandoned temporarily in the sea.
money
▪ Be prepared to lose your money.
▪ If the cost is more than the government allows, the hospital loses money.
▪ They would probably lose some money, power.
▪ If profits are negative, some firms will be driven out from the industry until the remaining firms do not lose money.
▪ The investors lost most of their money.
▪ In the late seventies, savings and loans began to lose depositors to money market funds, which offered higher returns.
▪ These days, universities can not afford to lose money, however intelligently.
▪ In the end, Dan made money and Lou lost money.
opportunity
▪ Secondly the poem speaks of the lost opportunities for life among those who once passed on the old road but are dead.
▪ It would be stupid, though, to lose the opportunity that all of this presents.
▪ It was a lost opportunity, but you can't change some people overnight.
▪ For them, lost opportunities on the ocean are hard to replace with other jobs.
▪ Thus, a person who becomes a slave loses this opportunity.
▪ The concern in 1970 was that women were losing ground in educational opportunities.
▪ It would be terrible if you lost this opportunity.
seat
▪ The Conservatives suffered the biggest reversal of fortunes losing two seats in their North Down power base.
▪ While Brown lost eight seats in a heavily Republican year, Lockyer only lost one.
▪ Although they lost 10 seats, they're still in control and that's now the only Conservative-controlled County in the country.
▪ If Republicans lose 21 seats, the Democrats will regain control of the House.
▪ The Government are deeply concerned that they may lose seats south of the border as a result of the community charge.
▪ The U.S. lost its seat on the panel last month.
▪ The Liberal Democrats lost 38 seats in the lower house of parliament in June elections.
▪ Second-term presidents historically lose their luster and energy by year six, and their party loses seats in Congress.
sense
▪ Schüssler Fiorenza believes that a people that has no history loses its sense of itself.
▪ Lurching along in this enclosed space, one loses all sense of direction.
▪ She would jump off a board and lose all sense of where she was.
▪ We have lost of a sense of great books, for instance.
▪ They lose their keen sense of smell and direction when the wind picks up like this.
▪ We lose a sense of an owl being an owl, a duck being duck, an oak being an oak tree.
temper
▪ I have no time for people who lose their temper with animals but something snapped in my mind then.
▪ He ached with anger at himself for losing his temper once again.
▪ I then walked across to the photographers and lost my temper, lost my head.
▪ That was plainly evident in the locker room, where Hostetler teetered on the brink of openly losing his temper.
▪ Then, one day, she had lost her temper, completely, suddenly and, even to herself, shockingly.
▪ As the argument escalated, Faison lost his temper completely and told Alvin that he wanted to leave the company.
▪ With the prospect of putting four points between themselves and the chasing Leeds, United lost their tempers - and their lead.
▪ When I reflected on all this later I knew that I just should not have lost my temper.
war
▪ He tried to lose himself in the war.
▪ Thirty-five percent of all draught animals were lost, if Civil War casualties are included.
▪ Rather than compromise in any way on the slavery issue, the South preferred to lose the war.
▪ For the Treasury this presented a golden opportunity to recover its traditional dominance which it had lost during the war.
▪ We will lose some of those wars.
▪ The Tories, the victors in the battle of ideas, look like losing the political war.
▪ Not a single stealth pilot was lost in the brief war.
weight
▪ Research has proved that we can eat more carbohydrate calories than fat calories and still lose weight!
▪ They starved themselves and chewed gum laced with laxatives to lose weight.
▪ I've lost weight by eating healthier meals.
▪ Since it was drawn, Kaczynski had aged, broken his nose and lost weight.
▪ You really can change your shape, lose weight and improve your confidence.
▪ If I want to lose a little weight I just tend to stop eating for a while.
▪ Seven children who were above the third percentile had recently lost weight or were failing to thrive.
▪ As one observer put it, our governments are like fat people who must lose weight.
■ VERB
cause
▪ A certain amount of mental arousal is necessary but too much causes you to lose confidence in your own abilities.
▪ Your investments should not cause you to lose sleep at night.
▪ It would cause an outcry and lose votes including mine.
▪ The Raiders are realizing the depth of their despair, caused by losing three of their first four games.
▪ Criticism should never cause the recipient to lose face, inner dignity or self-respect.
▪ Loan were sued by the federal government for lax oversight, which the government said caused taxpayers to lose $ 941 million.
▪ It is one of those moments in a recital that could cause a singer to lose nerve.
▪ He has a disease that causes him to lose his memory.
seem
▪ But her thoughts seemed to get lost in the heat.
▪ And in this sense, the great capitalist wave seems to have lost little of its power.
▪ There are many volumes un-numbered and many which were numbered seem to have been lost or given away.
▪ But more recently his results seems to have lost some of their luster.
▪ By the late 1930s the legal realist movement seemed to have lost its way.
▪ The right-brain compensatory ability seems to be lost for most of us sometime in the preschool years.
▪ My hair seems to have lost some of its colour as I've got older.
▪ Most of his papers seem lost.
stand
▪ The trusts stand to lose direct grants from the councils.
▪ But if prices decline, you stand to lose more as well.
▪ Hence a director of a company may stand to lose financially even though the company has limited liability.
▪ What does the publisher or author stand to lose?
▪ One report suggested off-course bookmakers stood to lose as much as £100,000.
▪ In fact, we stand to lose everything.
▪ Assuming that Short had been playing it straight, then there remained the question of who stood to lose if Pendero won.
▪ After all, she was the one who stood to lose most.
win
▪ One trains horrendously hard, one runs terrifically fast, one wins or loses.
▪ He has decided that the election will be won or lost on social issues in the electoral middle ground.
▪ Fortunes can be won or lost on a guess about bad weather as the contest between speculators moves back and forth.
▪ Everyone wins some and loses some, but the losers can always win on the next issue.
▪ If you start to feel sorry enough to let some one else win, you lose your honesty.
▪ Who will win and who will lose these struggles is not a foregone conclusion.
▪ You made your bets and either you won or you lost.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Get lost!
all is not lost
be lost
▪ Eventually the three children realized they were lost.
▪ Excuse me, I'm lost. Could you tell me where the station is, please?
▪ But that Spring Hill may be lost for ever, some residents say.
▪ He found himself in enormous buildings, with a labyrinth of rooms, and he was lost in the pile.
▪ Many of these will be lost for ever, before they have even been named.
▪ No time was lost in getting under way.
▪ None of this was lost on Kip.
▪ She's also a friend and I'd be lost without her.
▪ The danger was lost on those below who thought he was engaging in a new piece of daring.
▪ Without them he would be lost.
be lost for words
▪ For once in her life, she was lost for words, and uncertain of her argumentative ground.
▪ He was lost for words at the time, and had to apologise and thank the donors later in private.
be lost on sb
▪ All my warnings were completely lost on Beth.
▪ The joke was lost on Chris.
▪ But his message was lost on a people enjoying an economic and political freedom that he had never allowed them.
▪ It was lost on Duncan, who smiled courteously at the police inspector.
▪ Judging from his passive-Madonna performance as Gilbert Grape, Depp probably would be lost on a stage.
▪ None of this was lost on Kip.
▪ The last-minute change saved his life: 61 Squadron's aircraft was lost on the raid.
▪ To his bemusement there was no chill, or else the chill was lost on him.
▪ What is won on the swings is lost on the roundabouts.
be/get lost in the shuffle
▪ And in our sandwich, the grated cheese, when melted, got lost in the shuffle of the other ingredients.
▪ The theory, however, broke down; both customers and employees got lost in the shuffle.
feel/be lost
▪ I'd be lost without all your help.
▪ Energy expressed in a passive way is lost for ever.
▪ I walked on and yet it was all new and different and I realized I was lost again.
▪ I was lost in a little ocean of fog.
▪ Many pilots will drift into other careers and be lost to the industry for good.
▪ Some will revel in having more time for themselves; others will feel lost.
▪ Sometimes, valuable time can be lost.
▪ The sickening feel of woollen gloves being pulled on to your hands and hitting and blunting your fingertips so touch was lost.
▪ To his bemusement there was no chill, or else the chill was lost on him.
fight a losing battle
▪ And yet despite all this the pounds were creeping up on us and we seemed to be fighting a losing battle.
▪ Even with the addition of the Morning Post to the publishing empire in 1924, Die-hard journalism was fighting a losing battle.
▪ For most of these people they were fighting a losing battle.
▪ He tried hard to do this, but he was fighting a losing battle here against the rising tide of papal authority.
▪ The 84-year-old Oscar-winner has been fighting a losing battle against failing sight for the past year.
▪ The windscreen wipers sounded asthmatic, fighting a losing battle against the insistent rain.
▪ Under the present conditions of economic recession, regional policies are fighting a losing battle.
▪ Why couldn't she see she was fighting a losing battle?
get lost (in sth)
▪ It's easy for your main points to get lost in the middle of a long essay.
▪ A major issue in hypermedia, however, is the danger of users getting lost among the complex network of multimedia nodes.
▪ Discovering the real Tuscany, we had learned, requires getting lost.
▪ In spite of all I could do, it was getting tough to keep from getting lost.
▪ One could easily get lost in there for ever, Moira F. said.
▪ One of them got lost in the corridors and another dropped some important equipment into the sea.
▪ The many tracks through the woods make it easy to get lost - but that's never bothered me.
▪ We could get lost in those woods at night, paint or no paint.
▪ Without my markers I was afraid of getting lost.
give sb up for dead/lost etc
▪ After much searching, the village people gave Kay up for dead.
▪ Gray had been missing for over a year, and his wife was ready to give him up for dead.
▪ It is as if he gave them up for dead when they left Shiloh.
▪ On the thirteenth day, Kasturbai knelt before a sacred plant and prayed; she had given him up for lost.
give/lose your heart to sb
▪ I had lost my heart to the little, golden flowers that brightened the meadows like a thousand suns.
▪ This very thing was only one of the reasons why he had never wanted to lose his heart to anyone.
keep/lose track of sb/sth
▪ I followed the map, keeping track of our position so I could radio in our coordinates if we went down.
▪ Nitrogen use will be more problematic, but precision farming will enable farmers to keep track of field nutrient balances.
▪ Nobody could keep track of all the winners.
▪ North wanted to have Waite wired to keep track of his movements electronically, but Waite, very sensibly, refused.
▪ She'd lost track of it while she was dealing with Anna.
▪ She keeps track of magazine subscription renewals on a 10-by-12-inch card.
▪ Write down the names of people you meet, and then keep track of them.
lose count
▪ Be quiet - you made me lose count!
▪ I've been trying to keep a record of how many tickets we've sold, but I've lost count.
▪ I lost count after a hundred.
▪ Francis had lost count of the junctions and side-passages they had crossed.
▪ He had little idea as to how far they had come and had lost count of how many times they had fallen.
▪ I've no idea, I lost count of time.
▪ I, too, have lost count of the number of jobs I've applied for.
▪ She counted them; she lost count.
▪ She had lost count of the number of times she had slapped his hands from her body whenever he waylaid her outside.
▪ The Wormwood Scrubs prison houses are still empty after 10 or 12 years - I have lost count.
▪ Then two and afterwards he'd lose count.
lose face
▪ Rather than giving in and losing face, she carried on her needless quarrel with her father.
▪ The government suffered a severe loss of face when details of the scandal emerged.
▪ The leaders need to find a way of compromising without losing face among their supporters.
▪ They want to negotiate a ceasefire without either side losing face.
▪ Better to lose face and be open about not understanding the cryptic message, than to lose sleep at night over it.
▪ Criticism should never cause the recipient to lose face, inner dignity or self-respect.
▪ Eventually the policeman was prepared to lose face.
▪ No government likes to lose face like that.
▪ Senior managers can not afford to lose face too often and will bide their time to re-assert their authority.
▪ The country is asked to pay the price of the Government's overriding concern that they should not lose face.
▪ The vital thing was not to lose face.
▪ Thus the other follows because she does not want to lose face with her white friend.
lose ground
▪ American students lost ground in achievement levels in math and science between the 1970s and 1980s.
▪ Elsewhere, Islamism remains an opposition force only, and, though still potent, is losing ground.
▪ Shares of major banks lost ground.
▪ The concern in 1970 was that women were losing ground in educational opportunities.
▪ The radicals have steadily lost ground to the moderates since then.
▪ Therefore, even in those first moments, he had lost ground, was starting to fall behind himself.
▪ Without Samson's monumental strength, the smiths seemed to lose ground.
▪ Woosnam lost ground with a 73 and admits that he is' not in the groove at all.
lose sleep over sth
▪ It's just a practice game - I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
▪ And so I lose sleep over mute facts and frayed ends and missing witnesses.
▪ Have you ever lost sleep over them?
▪ In any case, Ari, don't lose sleep over any big hotel being built here.
lose your bearings
▪ I was trying to get to the A22 and lost my bearings a bit in all the country lanes.
▪ She soon lost her bearings in the dense forest.
▪ We lost our bearings in the fog and ended up 30 miles from home.
▪ When Kelly left, the company began to lose its bearings.
▪ Among right-wing circles this perception simply intensified their existential feeling of Angst, of having lost their bearings.
▪ But as the world grew unfamiliar, I began to lose my bearings.
▪ He had lost his bearings on a trip to nearby shops a few weeks earlier.
▪ If you lost your bearings down here you might never get out.
▪ Perhaps it was exhausted, perhaps it had lost its bearings in the thick fog.
lose your cool
▪ Sam was a real gentleman who never lost his cool.
▪ But she was not the only one who was losing her cool.
▪ Gable lost his cool with his pal Spencer Tracy who often tested the patience of his peers.
▪ He lost his cool and kicked out two stumps during a frustrating day when he beat the bat consistently.
▪ I should not have lost my cool and behaved in that manner.
▪ In this situation, it hardly ever helps if you start shouting or losing your cool.
▪ Kenneth finally lost his cool with a photographer this morning, and threatened to hit him.
▪ Sometimes she lost her cool and I thought she stepped out of her role as therapist.
lose your grip
▪ Unfortunately, lately her mother seems to have lost her grip on reality.
▪ Half way through, the film loses its grip on the day-to-day reality in Northern Ireland.
▪ He began a forlorn final game by losing his grip on the racket altogether.
▪ He lost his grip and fell into the car's path.
▪ I had made loops to go over her wrists, I told her, so that she wouldn't lose her grip.
▪ If Perelman succeeded, Gutfreund, for the first time, would lose his grip on the firm.
▪ Niyazov does not appear to be losing his grip.
▪ They decide to go, too, but Frank has problems manoeuvring the car, whose tyres keep losing their grip.
▪ Whilst cutting her garden hedge with a chainsaw one recent summer, a woman slipped and lost her grip.
lose your head
▪ Actually, not all of the men had lost their heads.
▪ Buckingham lost his head over the matter.
▪ But he must not lose his head and try to make up the distance all at once.
▪ But you lose your head in this crazy hellhole, you do, and different rules apply.
▪ He made a sort of feeble pretence of being afraid that he might lose his head.
▪ I must be losing my head, she thought.
▪ The bull market in bonds finally lost its head of steam.
▪ There was always something around the corner if you didn't lose your head.
lose your marbles
▪ The old boy had lost his marbles somewhere along the line.
▪ The runner in question hasn't lost his marbles - he's just upholding an old and well-loved Lincolnshire tradition.
lose your temper
▪ As the argument escalated, Faison lost his temper completely.
▪ You should never lose your temper with the students - it'll only make things worse.
▪ Bunny wasn't the only one to lose his temper.
▪ Did he ever lose his temper, raise his voice?
▪ He ached with anger at himself for losing his temper once again.
▪ He obviously had impregnation on his mind, but by now Lydia had lost her temper and she told him to get stuffed.
▪ It worked, however, as it had worked when Eng lost his temper about some performing he thought listless.
▪ Once the door is closed, Mami loses her temper.
▪ Then, one day, she had lost her temper, completely, suddenly and, even to herself, shockingly.
▪ Why did he always choose to lose his temper over issues in which he was in the wrong?
lost cause
▪ At first it seemed the attempt to save the species was a lost cause.
▪ The miners' strike of 1984 turned out to be a lost cause.
▪ But they are not completely lost causes.
▪ In recent years he had come to feel that he was pouring all his energies into a lost cause.
▪ It's seems that their marriage is a lost cause in which possess the husband and wife not real affection for one another.
▪ Like his rebel ancestor, Buchanan is fighting a lost cause with prideful determination despite overwhelming odds.
▪ Like the languages in which it was born, this seems a lost cause to many.
▪ My patron saint was Saint Jude, the patron of lost causes.
▪ Stand by your principles but don't waste time on lost causes.
▪ That, however, is a lost cause.
lost in the mists of time
▪ And, for some reason lost in the mists of time, we need to do that.
▪ What actually transpired upon the outbreak of the Civil War is lost in the mists of time it would seem.
lost sales/business/earnings etc
▪ A private parking garage in one building has lost business.
▪ Damaged stock means lost sales, and lost sales mean less profit.
▪ Foot-and-mouth has already cost £51million in lost sales of livestock.
▪ It's thought to have cost the Dickens and Jones department store £100,000 in lost business.
▪ It was estimated that the disruption cost retailers around £5m in lost sales.
▪ When Bogdanov refused, Mr Goddard said he intended to charge the company at least £1,650 to cover lost sales.
lost soul
▪ Also patron of lost souls and mariners.
▪ Also patron of infants and lost souls.
▪ And Sam Spiro - he had been like a lost soul since his wife died.
▪ How long had I been wandering about Warsaw like a lost soul?
▪ Ralph could hear himself telling this story to some lost soul in a diner.
▪ The howling wind outside sounded like the wailing of lost souls.
▪ There were some poor lost souls last week at the Ordnance Survey office in Chester.
▪ Those lost souls are so impoverished that they shave their heads in order that they may rub alcohol into them.
make up for lost time
▪ He's girl crazy! He went to a boys' school and now he's making up for lost time.
▪ The bus driver was speeding to make up for lost time.
▪ After a century or so of political apathy, Hong Kong's young people were making up for lost time.
▪ He was eager to make up for lost time and published prolifically.
▪ Meanwhile Keith and Mae are settling down to married life, making up for lost time.
▪ None the less, we immediately started our other meetings to make up for lost time.
▪ Once I settled into my new life, I did everything I could to make up for lost time.
▪ Time to make up for lost time.
there is no love lost between sb and sb
▪ There's no love lost between Bart and Stephen.
there's no time to lose
win or lose
▪ Win or lose, the future looks bright for Jones.
▪ Aside from team coordination, tactics play a huge part in determining whether you are on the winning or losing side.
▪ Dole is going to win or lose the election on his own.
▪ I may win or lose, but the way of life is easy and it loves me.
▪ The machines nauseate me whether I win or lose.
▪ They decide whether you win or lose.
win/lose by a whisker
▪ Davidson won the election by a whisker.
▪ He finished second in the 1988 Superstars, losing by a whisker in the final event.
▪ In a race that was ultimately won by a whisker, the Powell effect may even have made the difference for Bush.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "What are you looking for?" "My purse. I think I might have lost it."
▪ England lost to Brazil in the final.
▪ Everyone expected the Democrats to lose the election.
▪ He lost his title unexpectedly to a man who is virtually unknown outside boxing circles.
▪ I'll lose my job if the factory closes.
▪ I'm not playing tennis with her any more - I always lose.
▪ I always lose when I play tennis with my sister.
▪ I need to lose 10 pounds before the wedding.
▪ If you lose your credit card, phone this number immediately.
▪ Investors lost several million dollars on the project.
▪ It's a terrible thing to lose someone very close to you.
▪ Many people think that the Democrats' tax policies lost them the election.
▪ Michelle lost her job again.
▪ Neil put the certificate in a drawer so he wouldn't lose it.
▪ Noel lost the argument.
▪ NRT Corporation lost $2.2 million in the most recent quarter on sales of $6.3 million.
▪ Oh there you are - I thought I'd lost you.
▪ Professor Wilkes lost his sight in an accident three years ago.
▪ Sharon lost her mother when she was very young.
▪ Sorry, you lost your chance.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ I was a step away from triumph and did not want to lose it.
▪ In most Western democracies in the twentieth century, legislatures have lost a great deal of ground to executive branches.
▪ Josefina and I were plumb about to lose it.
▪ Last week was the first time Hastert had lost such a procedural vote.
▪ They have lost no time in sounding the alarm about an impending famine, which they say threatens 1.9m people.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lose

Lose \Lose\ (l[=oo]z), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Lost (l[o^]st; 115) p. pr. & vb. n. Losing (l[=oo]z"[i^]ng).] [OE. losien to loose, be lost, lose, AS. losian to become loose; akin to OE. leosen to lose, p. p. loren, lorn, AS. le['o]san, p. p. loren (in comp.), D. verliezen, G. verlieren, Dan. forlise, Sw. f["o]rlisa, f["o]rlora, Goth. fraliusan, also to E. loose, a & v., L. luere to loose, Gr. ly`ein, Skr. l[=u] to cut. [root]127. Cf. Analysis, Palsy, Solve, Forlorn, Leasing, Loose, Loss.]

  1. To part with unintentionally or unwillingly, as by accident, misfortune, negligence, penalty, forfeit, etc.; to be deprived of; as, to lose money from one's purse or pocket, or in business or gaming; to lose an arm or a leg by amputation; to lose men in battle.

    Fair Venus wept the sad disaster Of having lost her favorite dove.
    --Prior.

  2. To cease to have; to possess no longer; to suffer diminution of; as, to lose one's relish for anything; to lose one's health.

    If the salt hath lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted?
    --Matt. v. 1

  3. 3. Not to employ; to employ ineffectually; to throw away; to waste; to squander; as, to lose a day; to lose the benefits of instruction.

    The unhappy have but hours, and these they lose.
    --Dryden.

  4. To wander from; to miss, so as not to be able to and; to go astray from; as, to lose one's way.

    He hath lost his fellows.
    --Shak

  5. To ruin; to destroy; as destroy; as, the ship was lost on the ledge.

    The woman that deliberates is lost.
    --Addison.

  6. To be deprived of the view of; to cease to see or know the whereabouts of; as, he lost his companion in the crowd.

    Like following life thro' creatures you dissect, You lose it in the moment you detect.
    --Pope.

  7. To fail to obtain or enjoy; to fail to gain or win; hence, to fail to catch with the mind or senses; to miss; as, I lost a part of what he said.

    He shall in no wise lose his reward.
    --Matt. x. 42.

    I fought the battle bravely which I lost, And lost it but to Macedonians.
    --Dryden.

  8. To cause to part with; to deprive of. [R.]

    How should you go about to lose him a wife he loves with so much passion?
    --Sir W. Temple.

  9. To prevent from gaining or obtaining. O false heart! thou hadst almost betrayed me to eternal flames, and lost me this glory. --Baxter. To lose ground, to fall behind; to suffer gradual loss or disadvantage. To lose heart, to lose courage; to become timid. ``The mutineers lost heart.'' --Macaulay. To lose one's head, to be thrown off one's balance; to lose the use of one's good sense or judgment, through fear, anger, or other emotion. In the excitement of such a discovery, many scholars lost their heads. --Whitney. To lose one's self.

    1. To forget or mistake the bearing of surrounding objects; as, to lose one's self in a great city.

    2. To have the perceptive and rational power temporarily suspended; as, we lose ourselves in sleep. To lose sight of.

      1. To cease to see; as, to lose sight of the land.

      2. To overlook; to forget; to fail to perceive; as, he lost sight of the issue.

Lose

Lose \Lose\, v. i. To suffer loss, disadvantage, or defeat; to be worse off, esp. as the result of any kind of contest.

We 'll . . . hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out.
--Shak.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
lose

Old English losian "be lost, perish," from los "destruction, loss," from Proto-Germanic *lausa- (cognates: Old Norse los "the breaking up of an army;" Old English forleosan "to lose, destroy," Old Frisian forliasa, Old Saxon farliosan, Middle Dutch verliesen, Old High German firliosan, German verlieren), from PIE root *leu- "to loosen, divide, cut apart, untie, separate" (cognates: Sanskrit lunati "cuts, cuts off," lavitram "sickle;" Greek lyein "to loosen, untie, slacken," lysus "a loosening;" Latin luere "to loose, release, atone for, expiate").\n

\nReplaced related leosan (a class II strong verb whose past participle loren survives in forlorn and lovelorn), from Proto-Germanic *leusanan (cognates: Old High German virliosan, German verlieren, Old Frisian urliasa, Gothic fraliusan "to lose").\n

\nTransitive sense of "to part with accidentally" is from c.1200. Meaning "fail to maintain" is from mid-15c. Meaning "to be defeated" (in a game, etc.) is from 1530s. Meaning "to cause (someone) to lose his way" is from 1640s. To lose (one's) mind "become insane" is attested from c.1500. To lose out "fail" is 1858, American English. Related: Lost; losing.

Wiktionary
lose

Etymology 1 vb. (context transitive English) To cause (something) to cease to be in one's possession or capability due to unfortunate or unknown circumstances, events or reasons. Etymology 2

n. (context obsolete English) fame, renown; praise.

Related phrases:
WordNet
lose

  1. v. 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" [ant: keep]

  2. fail to win; "We lost the battle but we won the war" [ant: win]

  3. 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"

  4. place (something) where one cannot find it again; "I misplaced my eyeglasses" [syn: misplace, mislay]

  5. miss from one's possessions; lose sight of; "I've lost my glasses again!" [ant: find]

  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. 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" [syn: turn a loss] [ant: profit, break even]

  8. fail to get or obtain; "I lost the opportunity to spend a year abroad" [ant: acquire]

  9. retreat [syn: fall back, drop off, fall behind, recede] [ant: gain]

  10. 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: miss]

  11. be set at a disadvantage; "This author really suffers in translation" [syn: suffer]

  12. [also: lost]

Related phrases:
Gazetteer
Related phrases:
Wikipedia
LOSE

LOSE may refer to:

  • League of Super Evil, a Canadian animated television series produced by Nerd Corps Entertainment in conjunction with YTV. abbreviated to "LOSE" or "L.O.S.E."
  • LOSE (Cymbals Eat Guitars album), the third studio album by American indie rock band Cymbals Eat Guitars
  • Lightweight Oxygen Swimmers Equipment, a diving rebreather formerly made by Siebe Gorman, similar to a Swimmer Canoeist's Breathing Apparatus
Lose (Cymbals Eat Guitars album)

LOSE is the third studio album by American indie rock band Cymbals Eat Guitars, released by Tough Love Records on August 25, 2014 in the UK and by Barsuk Records on August 26, 2014 in the U.S.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "lose".

But his thought stayed not there, but carried him into the days when he was abiding in desire of the love that he won at last, and lost so speedily.

Far aboon, ommost lost to mi view, Aw lang for a pair ov his wings, To fly wi him, an sing like him, too.

If he wept at the sight of an old tapestry which represented the crime and punishment of the son of Chosroes, if his days were abridged by grief and remorse, we may allow some pity to a parricide, who exclaimed, in the bitterness of death, that he had lost both this world and the world to come.

Matter, then, thus brought to order must lose its own nature in the supreme degree unless its baseness is an accidental: if it is base in the sense of being Baseness the Absolute, it could never participate in order, and, if evil in the sense of being Evil the Absolute, it could never participate in good.

Already a bit bewildered by their flurry of Classical references and Latin maxims, he was lost when Acer and George exchanged a few lines in French, watching out of the corner of their eyes to see if he had understood.

Another moment she could see, as if through a dirtied window, some place she knew, but had lost, and her old bones ached with wanting to be there.

She ached for the return of her husband, for the love she had apparently lost.

If Priam were to ally himself with Axis and his ungodly hordes, then the Forbidden could invade Achar and all would be lost.

Nevertheless, he concluded that the moral life is a consequence of civilisation, not the natural state and that in achieving morality and civilisation men and woman have lost their innocence.

In that way we shall become acquainted without the necessity of disturbing you, or of your losing at night some hours which may be precious to you.

I lost my trouble and my time, for I did not become acquainted with the shore till the octave of Christmas, and with the small door six months afterwards.

It possesses an acrid, biting taste, somewhat like that of the Peppermint, which resides in the glandular dots sprinkled about its surface, and which is lost in drying.

But the strongest argument in their favour was that adduced by Lord Althorp, which was to the effect, that, if his motion were lost, it would upset the ministry.

He arose from the oaken bench on which he was seated in the chapel, and wished, as the priest had done, to go and bid a last adieu to the double grave which contained his two lost friends.

But this adjutant returned half an hour later with the news that the commander of the dragoons had already retreated beyond the dip in the ground, as a heavy fire had been opened on him and he was losing men uselessly, and so had hastened to throw some sharpshooters into the wood.