miss

Etymology 1

From Middle English missen, from Old English missan (“to miss, escape the notice of a person”), Proto-Germanic *missijaną (“to miss, go wrong, fail”), from Proto-Indo-European *meytH- (“to change, exchange, trade”). Cognate with West Frisian misse (“to miss”), Dutch missen (“to miss”), German missen (“to miss”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish miste (“to lose”), Swedish missa (“to miss”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Icelandic missa (“to lose”).

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To fail to hit.
   I missed the target.
   I tried to kick the ball, but missed.
   Flying bullets now, To execute his rage, appear too slow; They miss, or sweep but common souls away. 1666, Edmund Waller, "Instructions to a Painter
2. (transitive) To fail to achieve or attain.
   to miss an opportunity
3. (transitive) To avoid; to escape.
   The car just missed hitting a passer-by.
4. (transitive) To become aware of the loss or absence of; to feel the want or need of, sometimes with regret.
   I miss you! Come home soon!
5. (transitive) To fail to understand;
   miss the joke
6. (transitive) To fail to notice; to have a shortcoming of perception; overlook.
   So I'm just going over my early notes, see if I missed anything.
7. (transitive) To fail to attend.
   Joe missed the meeting this morning.
8. (transitive) To be late for something (a means of transportation, a deadline, etc.).
   I missed the plane!
9. (transitive) To be wanting; to lack something that should be present.
   The car is missing essential features.
10. (transitive, slang) To spare someone of something unwanted or undesirable.
    Miss me with that nonsense!
11. (poker, said of a card) To fail to help the hand of a player.
    Player A: J7. Player B: Q6. Table: 283. The flop missed both players!
12. (sports) To fail to score (a goal).
    Georgia, ranked 16th in the world, dominated the breakdown before half-time and forced England into a host of infringements, but fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili missed three penalties. September 18, 2011, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport
13. (intransitive, obsolete) To go wrong; to err.
14. (intransitive, obsolete) To be absent, deficient, or wanting.

noun

1. A failure to hit.
   I ran from one place to another, and as it was not difficult to get a shot at him, I fired several times, but only made miss after miss. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 76
2. A failure to obtain or accomplish.
3. An act of avoidance (usually used with the verb give)
   I think I’ll give the meeting a miss.
4. (computing) The situation where an item is not found in a cache and therefore needs to be explicitly loaded.

Etymology 2

From mistress.

noun

1. A title of respect for a young woman (usually unmarried) with or without a name used.
   You may sit here, miss.
   You may sit here, Miss Jones.
2. An unmarried woman; a girl.
   While thus the fiends, with wily art, Adroitly stole upon the heart, And with their complaisance, and tales, Had ruind more than half the males, Gay Vanity, with smiles, and kisses, Was busy 'mongst the maids, and misses. 1771, James Cawthorn, Poems, by the Rev. Mr. Cawthorn, Late Master of Tunbridge School
3. A kept woman; a mistress.
4. (card games) In the game of three-card loo, an extra hand, dealt on the table, which may be substituted for the hand dealt to a player.