Definition of "lose"

lose¹

/luːz/

verb
third-person singular simple present 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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess‎
  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.
  2008 November 21, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 3, Episode 1
  Forest, who lost striker Kris Boyd to injury seconds before half-time, produced little after the break, with a Tyson sliced shot from 12 yards their only opportunity of note.
  2011 April 15, Saj Chowdhury, “Norwich 2-1 Nott'm Forest”, in BBC Sport
  1. (transitive) To have (an organ) removed from one's body, especially by accident.
  2. (transitive) To shed (weight).
  3. (transitive) To experience the death of (someone to whom one has an attachment, such as a relative or friend).
  4. (transitive) To pay or owe (some wager) due from an unsuccessful bet or gamble.
  5. (transitive) To be deprived of (some right or privileged access to something).
2. To wander from; to miss, so as not to be able to find; to go astray from.
  Quotations
  He hath lost his fellows.
  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, [Act I, scene ii]
3. (transitive) To fail to win (a game, competition, trial, etc).
  Quotations
  I fought the battle bravely which I lost, / And lost it but to Macedonians.
  1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy
  Well, some news from overseas: according to a new report, Russia is now buying military supplies from North Korea. Yep, Russia's asking North Korea for help. Uh, tell us you're losing the war without telling us you're losing the war.
  2022 September 7, 5:25 from the start, in Trump Tried to Pay Lawyer with a Horse, Also Stole Material on Foreign Nation's Nuclear Capabilities‎ (Comedy), spoken by Jimmy Fallon, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, archived from the original on 08 September 2022
4. (transitive) To be unable to follow or trace (somebody or something) any longer.
5. (transitive) To cause (somebody) to be unable to follow or trace one any longer.
6. (transitive) To cease exhibiting; to overcome (a behavior or emotion).
  Quotations
  I can see Mickie getting hot, I'm about to grab his arm, hold him back, say, Whoa, whoa, Mick, not here, it ain't worth it what happened inside just now. But I don't need to because Mickie loses his anger, starts smiling at ponytail, then melodramatically starts looking around at the men and women on the street going in and out of the courthouse.
  2007, Ron Liebman, Death by Rodrigo, New York: Simon & Schuster, page 134
  Her attitude was so bad my mother wound up telling her, “You know we really don't have to be standing here talking to you, so you can lose the attitude or you can leave.
  2012, Tracy Brooks, Dancing in the Rain, page 349
7. (transitive, informal) To shed, remove, discard, or eliminate.
  Quotations
  You can bet that the next woman who "loses" the top half of her bikini at the beach was born under the sign of Libra.
  1976, Martine, Sexual Astrology
8. Of a clock, to run slower than expected.
9. (ditransitive) To cause (someone) the loss of something; to deprive of.
  Quotations
  O false heart! thou hadst almost betrayed me to eternal flames, and lost me this glory.
  1650, Richard Baxter, The Saints' Everlasting Rest
  How should you go about to lose him a wife he loves with so much passion?
  a. 1699, Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet, On the Excesses of Grief
  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.
  2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 556
10. To fail to catch with the mind or senses; to miss.

lose²

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

Definition of "lose"

lose1

verb

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lose2

noun

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lose¹

lose²