INDEX:
lose/can’t find
1. to be unable to find someone or something
2. someone or something that you cannot find
lose/not win
3. to lose a game, argument, election, war etc
4. to stop trying to win
5. when you are likely to lose a game etc
6. someone who has lost
RELATED WORDS
when you do not know where you are : ↑ LOST
◆◆◆
1. to be unable to find someone or something
▷ lose /luːz/ [transitive verb]
to be unable to find something, especially because you cannot remember where you put it :
▪ If you lose your credit card, phone this number immediately.
▪ ‘What are you looking for?’ ‘My purse. I think I might have lost it.’
▪ Neil put the certificate in a drawer so he wouldn’t lose it.
▷ can’t find /ˌkɑːnt ˈfaɪndǁˌkænt-/ [verb phrase]
to be unable to find something or someone, especially after you have spent a long time looking for them :
▪ She searched her pockets, but she couldn’t find the tickets.
▪ What’s happened to Eric? I can’t find him anywhere.
▷ mislay /mɪsˈleɪ/ [transitive verb] formal
to lose something for a short time, especially because you put it somewhere and then forgot where you put it :
▪ I seem to have temporarily mislaid my keys. Have you seen them anywhere?
▪ If your bank card is lost, mislaid or stolen, call our Card Hotline number.
▷ loss /lɒsǁlɔːs/ [uncountable noun] formal
the fact that you have lost something :
▪ The company cannot accept liability for loss or damage to a passenger’s property.
the loss of something
▪ You should report the loss of your passport to the consulate.
2. someone or something that you cannot find
▷ missing /ˈmɪsɪŋ/ [adjective]
a missing object is lost and may have been stolen; a missing person cannot be found and may be in danger :
▪ She’s been missing for three days now, and we’re very worried.
▪ The painting, which has been missing for almost half a century, only turned up when the owner of the house died.
missing from
▪ Police are ‘very concerned’ for the safety of a teenager who’s been missing from home for three days.
▪ Two pages were missing from my copy of the report.
go missing (from)
British become lost or be stolen
▪ A small sum of money went missing from the office last night.
report somebody/something missing (from)
tell someone in authority that someone or something is lost or stolen
▪ The man had reported his girlfriend missing three days after she disappeared.
▷ lost /lɒstǁlɔːst/ [adjective]
if something is lost, no-one knows where it is :
▪ I’ve looked everywhere for the car keys. I think they must be lost.
▪ Divers are searching for the plane’s lost flight recorder.
get lost
▪ You haven’t gotten my letter yet? It must have gotten lost in the mail.
▷ disappear /ˌdɪsəˈpɪəʳ/ [intransitive verb]
if something or someone disappears, they cannot be found and you think they may have been stolen or may be in danger :
▪ I thought I had a copy of the notes, but they seem to have disappeared somewhere.
▪ The parents of an art student who disappeared in the middle of his exams have made an emotional plea for him to come home.
disappear from
▪ The letter had mysteriously disappeared from the file overnight.
disappearance [countable/uncountable noun]
▪ It’s now three months since his disappearance.
▷ be nowhere to be seen/found /biː ˌnəʊweəʳ tə biː ˈsiːn, ˈfaʊnd/ [verb phrase]
if someone or something is nowhere to be seen or nowhere to be found, you have looked everywhere for them but still cannot find them :
▪ Our tour guide was nowhere to be seen, so we set off to explore the city alone.
▪ She’d looked everywhere for her glasses, but they were nowhere to be found.
3. to lose a game, argument, election, war etc
▷ lose /luːz/ [intransitive/transitive verb]
to lose a game, competition, fight, or war :
▪ I always lose when I play tennis with my sister.
lose a game/fight/election etc
▪ Everyone expected the Democrats to lose the election.
▪ The Chicago Bears lost their eighth game in a row they lost eight games, one after the other .
lose to
▪ England lost to Brazil in the final.
▪ He lost his title unexpectedly to a man who is virtually unknown outside boxing circles.
lose 3-2/by 1 goal/by 10 votes/by 20 points etc
▪ The Springboks lost by only three points to the All Blacks.
▪ The match was lost 3 to 1.
lose somebody the game/competition/election etc
be the reason that someone lost
▪ Many people think that the Democrats’ tax policies lost them the election.
▷ be beaten /biː ˈbiːtn/ [verb phrase]
to lose a game, competition, or race, often by a large amount or when you were expecting to win :
▪ In 37 fights, Lewis has only been beaten once.
▪ Jake sure doesn’t like being beaten.
be beaten by
▪ The Barbarians were beaten in the quarter-finals by the Korean side.
get beaten
▪ We always seems to get beaten when we play in Europe.
▷ be defeated /biː dɪˈfiːtə̇d/ [verb phrase]
to lose an important or difficult battle, election, or game :
▪ Government forces took control of the town after the rebel forces were defeated.
be defeated by
▪ Last night, the Raiders were defeated by a superior team.
be badly/heavily/decisively defeated
be very badly defeated
▪ He ran for Congress last year, but was decisively defeated.
be narrowly defeated
to lose but be very close to winning
▪ The Democratic Party was narrowly defeated in the general election, and will form a coalition with the Congress party.
▷ defeat /dɪˈfiːt/ [countable/uncountable noun]
when a person, team, or army is defeated in a game, competition, election, battle etc :
▪ It was the Christian Democratic Party’s fourth successive electoral defeat.
defeat of
▪ the defeat of Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo
somebody’s defeat of somebody
the fact that one person or team defeats another
▪ Scotland’s defeat of Spain
somebody’s defeat by somebody
the fact that one person or team is defeated by another
▪ Mr Taylor blamed bad publicity for his defeat by Mr Jones.
a crushing/humiliating/resounding defeat
▪ The captain offered no excuses for his team’s humiliating defeat.
▪ The New York Times described the withdrawal of troops as a resounding defeat for the government.
suffer a defeat
▪ She retired from the sport after suffering a series of humiliating defeats.
▷ meet your match /ˌmiːt jɔːʳ ˈmætʃ/ [verb phrase not in progressive]
if a very good player, team etc meets their match, they are beaten by an even better player, team etc, especially after a long period during which they were never beaten :
▪ She’s a good player but she’ll meet her match when she plays Sara.
meet your match in
▪ I slowly started to realize I had met my match in Nigel.
▷ take a beating /ˌteɪk ə ˈbiːtɪŋ/ [verb phrase]
to lose very badly in a game of football, tennis etc :
▪ ‘I hear you took a bit of a beating last night.’ ‘Yeah, we lost 12 -2.’
4. to stop trying to win
▷ admit/accept defeat /ədˌmɪt, əkˌsept dɪˈfiːt/ [verb phrase]
to stop playing, fighting, or trying to succeed because you know you will lose, especially after you have struggled to succeed for a long time :
▪ The four climbers were eventually forced to admit defeat when weather conditions made it impossible to continue.
▪ She simply refuses to accept defeat, no matter how bad things seem.
▷ give in /ˌgɪv ˈɪn/ [intransitive phrasal verb]
to stop playing, fighting, arguing etc because you know that you are not good enough to win :
▪ Marie’s stubborn, and she doesn’t give in easily.
give in to
▪ I figured if we gave in to them this time, they’d be back for another fight.
▪ In the end, I had to give in to dad -- he’s usually right anyway.
▷ surrender /səˈrendəʳ/ [intransitive verb]
to officially say that you want to stop fighting in a war because you realize that you cannot win :
▪ Finally, on April 16th, the enemy surrendered.
surrender to
▪ 19 rebels hiding in the Czech embassy surrendered to the authorities.
surrender [singular/uncountable noun]
▪ The Milanese were starving, and forced into surrender.
▪ Colonel Casado was anxious to negotiate a surrender.
unconditional surrender
complete acceptance of defeat
▪ General Haig would accept nothing less than unconditional surrender.
▷ concede /kənˈsiːd/ [intransitive/transitive verb]
to admit that you are not going to win a battle, argument, or game because you are not strong enough or good enough to win :
▪ Eventually, the chairman was forced to concede and announce his resignation.
▪ ‘Sam, you have to apologise to her’ -- ‘I know,’ Sam conceded grudgingly.
concede defeat
admit you are defeated
▪ Matthew kept on arguing his point, unwilling to concede defeat.
concede that
▪ Environmentalists concede that it will not be easy to persuade car drivers to use their vehicles less often.
concede to
▪ We both had a point, but neither of us would concede to the other.
5. when you are likely to lose a game etc
▷ be losing /biː ˈluːzɪŋ/ [verb phrase]
to be in a position where you are likely to lose a game, competition, election or war because you are not doing as well as your opponent :
▪ ‘Is Joachim winning?’ ‘No, he’s losing.’
be losing the game/war etc
▪ It can be difficult not to show your frustration when you’re losing the match.
be losing 3--1/by 15 points/by 2 goals etc
▪ ‘What’s the score?’ ‘We’re losing 3 -- nil.’
▷ be behind /biː bɪˈhaɪnd/ [verb phrase]
to be losing a game, competition, or election :
be behind by two goals/by10 points etc
▪ The opinion polls show that the Republicans are behind by 3%.
be 10 points/a goal etc behind
▪ ‘How are we doing?’ ‘We’re 10 points behind, I’m afraid.’
be a long way behind/be way behind
be losing by a large amount
▪ Although we only had a short break, we were a long way behind the front runners.
▪ The Eagles are way behind. We’ll never win at this rate.
▷ trail also trail behind /treɪl, ˌtreɪl bɪˈhaɪnd/ [intransitive/transitive verb]
to be losing a game or competition, or election - used especially in news reports :
▪ Penn State trail West Virginia by only 1 point.
trail 3--0/by 10 points/by 8 votes etc
▪ Sweden was trailing by 2 games to 1.
▪ With his team trailing 72--78, the manager was forced to bring back his star player.
trail behind
▪ These two top drivers have left the others trailing behind.
▪ Labour trailed third, behind the Conservative and Liberal parties.
▷ outsider /aʊtˈsaɪdəʳ/ [countable noun]
a person or team that is not expected to win :
▪ The defending champion was beaten by an outsider in the first round.
▪ Smith, a little-known outsider with limited political experience, came from behind to score a surprise victory.
rank outsider
someone with a very small chance of winning British
▪ He started as a no-hoper -- a rank outsider for the title.
6. someone who has lost
▷ loser /ˈluːzəʳ/ [countable noun]
the person or group that has lost a game, competition, or election :
▪ The losers walked slowly off the field.
▪ I’d like to congratulate all our entrants, the winners and the losers.
bad loser
someone who behaves badly when they lose
▪ You’re just a bad loser Phil, that’s your problem.
▷ losing /ˈluːzɪŋ/ [adjective only before noun]
losing side/team etc
one that has lost :
▪ Nobody wants to be on the losing side.
▪ The quiz show gives losing contestants the chance to see what they would have won.
▷ runner-up /ˌrʌnər ˈʌp/ [countable noun]
the person or team that comes second or third in a game, race, or competition :
▪ 100 lucky runners-up will receive a boxed set of CDs.
▪ Gordon was also presented with a cheque as runner-up of the closely fought contest.
▷ defeated /dɪˈfiːtɪd, dɪˈfiːtəd/ [adjective only before noun]
defeated army/finalist/opponent etc
one that lost the battle, war, game etc :
▪ Let’s have a quick word with the two defeated finalists.
▪ The rebels hope to weaken the regime further by attacking its defeated and demoralised forces.