lose
pronunciation
How to pronounce lose in British English:
UK [luːz]
How to pronounce lose in American English:
US [luːz]
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- Verb:
- fail to keep or to maintain; cease to have, either physically or in an abstract sense
- fail to win
- suffer the loss of a person through death or removal
- place (something) where one cannot find it again
- miss from one's possessions; lose sight of
- allow to go out of sight
- fail to make money in a business; make a loss or fail to profit
- fail to get or obtain
- retreat
- fail to perceive or to catch with the senses or the mind
- be set at a disadvantage
Word Origin
- lose
- lose: [OE] The verb lose originated as a derivative of the Old English noun los ‘loss’, which went back ultimately to the same Indo-European source (*lau-, *leu-, lu-) as produced English loose and the suffix -less. In Old English it was losian, which eventually ousted the original lēosan to become the only verb for ‘lose’. The noun los died out before the Middle English period, and was replaced by loss [14], probably a derivative of the past participle lost. The past participle of lēosan ‘lose’ was loren, which survives in forlorn and love-lorn.=> loose
- lose (v.)
- 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"). Replaced 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"). Transitive 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.
Example
- 1. It won 't want to lose another .
- 2. What have you got to lose ?
- 3. You have nothing to lose .
- 4. This is not the time to lose heart .
- 5. Those are the other states where republicans could lose seats .