Definition of "miscarry"

miscarry

/ˌmɪsˈkæɹi/

verb
third-person singular simple present miscarries, present participle miscarrying, simple past and past participle miscarried
1. (obsolete) To have an unfortunate accident of some kind; to be killed, or come to harm.
2. (now rare) To go astray; to do something wrong.
3. To have a miscarriage; to involuntarily abort a foetus.
4. To fail to achieve some purpose; to be unsuccessful, to go wrong (of a business, project etc.).
  Quotations
  Pluto observing, since the Peace,The Burial Article decrease;And, vext to see Affairs miscarry,Declar'd in Council, Death must marry […]
  1730, Jonathan Swift, “Death And Daphne,”, in Some Verse Pieces
5. Of a letter etc.: to fail to reach its intended recipient.
  Quotations
  Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries with the king; and here he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which accidentally, or by the way of progression, hath miscarried.
  c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
  It likewise alluded to several letters—which, it appeared to me, must have miscarried or been intercepted […] .
  1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown
  Since the luckless Friday morning he had neither been seen nor heard of; day after day, Adeline had trusted to receive a letter, but in those times posts were slow and uncertain, messengers and couriers were often employed instead; and the hope might reasonably be clung to of a letter having miscarried.
  1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter VII, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], page 144

Definition of "miscarry"

miscarry

verb

Quotations

Quotations