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 sea formal (= 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.
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But they were losing the battle .
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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
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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 .
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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.
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Without my markers I was afraid of getting lost .
give sb up for dead/lost etc
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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.