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Glite Dictionary
to lose sight of

to lose sight of

87 3.5
To stop being able to see a person or thing because something blocks your view
  • phrasal verb
  • /luːz saɪt ʌv/
translation icon : perder de vista
  • And in the process of doing so, he had to lose sight of the object for a moment.
  • lose sight of people
  • easy to lose sight of

And in the process of doing so, he had to lose sight of the object for a moment.

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Examples

  • In the dense fog, we quickly lost sight of the road ahead.

  • When the storm hit, we lost sight of the boat in the turbulent waves.

  • And I never want to lose sight of that.

  • But I will never lose sight of this part of my story.

  • May we never lose sight of that which matters most.

  • Never lose sight of the fact that it should be fun.

  • We should not, however, lose sight of just how important this time of year can be.

    Academic text (2012)

  • I followed this person a few blocks before I lost sight of him.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • So don't lose sight of the bigger picture.

  • Master teachers never lose sight of why they and their students have assembled in the classroom.

    Academic text (1990)

How Visible

to show up
∞ 1.4
to lose sight of
87 3.5
to hide
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

lose sight of infinitive
losing sight of present participle
loses sight of third person singular
lost sight of past
lost sight of past participle

Morphology

lose + sight + of

The meaning is directly compositional: 'lose' (to no longer have) + 'sight' (ability to see) + 'of' yields 'no longer be able to see' in the literal sense, and the metaphorical sense ('no longer keep in view/attention') follows a straightforward extension. This pattern is a common, predictable mapping (visual perception → attention) in many languages, so a B1 learner who knows the parts will generally understand the MWE.

Etymology

Lose sight of comes from a simple image: you are watching someone or something and then you lose the sight of them because they move away or are hidden. So, it means 'to no longer be able to see something or someone'.