English
lose
see also: Lose
Etymology 1

From Middle English losen, from Old English losian, from Proto-Germanic *lusōną, *luzōną, from Proto-Germanic *lusą.

Pronunciation Verb

lose (loses, present participle losing; simple past and past participle lost)

  1. (transitive) To cause (something) to cease to be in one's possession or capability.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:
      Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.
    • 2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1:
      Douglas: I took some of the pension money out of the bank and I lost it on a horse.
      Nolan: Gambling with our employees' pensions?
      Douglas: Gambling? No. I was riding the horse. It fell out of my pocket.
    If you lose that ten-pound note, you'll be sorry.
    He lost his hearing in the explosion.
    She lost her position when the company was taken over.
    1. (transitive) To have (an organ) removed from one's body, especially by accident.
      Johnny lost a tooth, but kept it for the tooth fairy.
      He lost his spleen in a car wreck.
    2. (transitive) To shed (weight).
      I’ve lost five pounds this week.
    3. (transitive) To experience the death of (someone to whom one has an attachment, such as a relative or friend).
      She lost all her sons in the war.
      • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XXVII, page 44 ↗:
        I hold it true, whate’er befall;
        ⁠I feel it, when I sorrow most;
        ⁠’Tis better to have loved and lost
        Than never to have loved at all.
    4. (transitive) To pay or owe (some wager) due from an unsuccessful bet or gamble.
      Frank had lost $500 staying in Vegas.
    5. (transitive) To be deprived of (some right or privileged access to something).
      Users who engage in disruptive behavior may lose their accounts.
  2. To wander from; to miss, so as not to be able to find; to go astray from.
    I lost my way in the forest.
    • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:
      He hath lost his fellows.
  3. (transitive) To fail to win (a game, competition, trial, etc).
    We lost the football match.
    You just lost The Game.
    • 1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy:
      I fought the battle bravely which I lost, / And lost it but to Macedonians.
  4. (transitive) To be unable to follow or trace (somebody or something) any longer.
    The policeman lost the robber he was chasing.
    Mission control lost the satellite as its signal died down.
  5. (transitive) To cause (somebody) to be unable to follow or trace one any longer.
    We managed to lose our pursuers in the forest.
  6. (transitive) To cease exhibiting; to overcome (a behavior or emotion).
  7. (transitive, informal) To shed, remove, discard, or eliminate.
    When we get into the building, please lose the hat.
  8. Of a clock, to run slower than expected.
    My watch loses five minutes a week.
    It's already 5:30? My watch must have lost a few minutes.
  9. (ditransitive) To cause (someone) the loss of something; to deprive of.
    • 1650, Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest:
      O false heart! thou hadst almost betrayed me to eternal flames, and lost me this glory.
    • a. 1699, Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, On the Excesses of Grief
      How should you go about to lose him a wife he loves with so much passion?
    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 556:
      This lost Catholicism […] any semblance of a claim to special status, and also highlighted the gains which other religious formations had derived from the Revolution.
  10. To fail to catch with the mind or senses; to miss.
    I lost a part of what he said.
Conjugation
Conjugation of lose

infinitive (to) lose
present tense past tense
1st-person singular lose lost
2nd-person singular

 lose, losest†

 lost, lostest†
3rd-person singular

 loses, loseth†

 lost
plural

 lose

subjunctive

 lose

lost
imperative

 lose

—
participles

 losing

 lost

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “cause to cease to be in one's possession”): come across, discover, find, gain, acquire, procure, get, pick up, snag
  • (antonym(s) of “fail to win (something”): win
  • (antonym(s) of “shed (weight”): gain, put on
  • (antonym(s) of “have (somebody of one's kin) die”):
  • (antonym(s) of “be unable to follow or trace (somebody or something) any longer”): find
  • (antonym(s) of “shed, remove, discard, eliminate”): pick up
  • (antonym(s) of “fail to be the winner”): come first, win
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Old French los, loos, from Latin laudēs, plural of laus ("praise").

Noun

lose

  1. (obsolete) Fame, renown; praise.
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:
      That much he feared least reprochfull blame / With foule dishonour him mote blot therefore; / Besides the losse of so much loos and fame […].
Lose
Etymology

Borrowed from German Lose.

Proper noun
  1. Surname.


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