near miss
14
3.7
- noun
- /nɪr mɪs/
:
casi accidente
- The cyclist experienced a near miss when a car swerved dangerously close to him.
- errors and near misses
- accident or near miss
- near misses, when no harm
Maybe little Lachie had a near miss, but he wasn't in that room.
- Maybe little Lachie had a near miss, but he wasn't in that room.
- An asteroid has a near miss with Earth.
- You know, how many near misses were there during, during the last Cold War?
- For one thing, there was a near miss when we left Stapleton or whatever the airport is in in Denver now.
- It is crazy when you factor in all the like near miss accidental firings.
- It was a near miss on to another Great Depression.
- And just to emphasize that point again, they diversify the FAA and near misses immediately doubled.
Examples
-
Nursing staff were more comfortable with reporting errors and near misses in a teaching environment.
Academic text (2005) -
Wedge was rocked by a near miss.
Fiction book (1999) -
Of course you always feel that way after a near miss.
-
That was a near miss.
-
And there have been a few near misses.
Fiction book (1998) -
Finally, near misses can feel particularly thrilling.
-
An asteroid has a near miss with Earth.
-
You've already had a near miss.
-
Speed alone wasn't going to save him now, and a near miss could end the contest right here and now.
Fiction book (1991) -
What he remembered was the skein of accidents, the stubs, the stumbles, the small explosions, the near misses, all of them exhilarating.
Fiction book (2002)
Synonyms
43
3.7
A situation when something bad almost happens but is avoided
3
3.9
A situation where you almost have something bad happen
1
6.6
A situation when something bad almost happens but does not
1
6.3
A very small distance in a close call
Antonyms
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an incident in which a collision or accident is narrowly avoided' is directly derivable from combining 'near' (almost/just short of) with 'miss' (an instance of failing to hit) — i.e. an instance of almost missing. This is a straightforward modifier + noun composition found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Near miss comes from the simple picture of two things coming very close but not hitting. The part near shows how close they were and miss shows they did not hit, so the phrase now means 'almost had an accident'.