near miss
noun
variants:
or less commonly near-miss
Definition of near miss
1a
: a miss (as with a bomb) close enough to cause damage
b
: something that falls just short of success
2a
: a near collision (as between aircraft)
b
: close call
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Examples of near miss in a Sentence
After years of near misses, the team has finally won a championship.
a near miss with death prompted him to give up skydiving
Recent Examples on the Web
Since the 2017 near miss, federal authorities took immediate steps to improve safety at SFO. — Matthias Gafni, SFChronicle.com, "SFO near-miss: Capt. âSullyâ pushes bill, says âbiggest threats are runway relatedâ," 8 Aug. 2019 The Democratic near miss in the Ohio special election augurs well for the partyâs prospects in November. — Li Zhou, Vox, "âA blue flood, more than just a waveâ: 8 experts on midterm elections after the Ohio special election," 10 Aug. 2018 When Jacob Koos singled to extend the inning with his fifth hit of the Super Regional, Wilson came to the plate with a chance to make amends for his near miss a day earlier. — Brett Friedlander, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Stetson ends best season in school history with loss to UNC at Chapel Hill Super Regional," 9 June 2018 That is where the game stood for the next couple of hours, through Oaklandâs near miss in the ninth inning, another threat in the top of the 10th and the Yankeesâ getting a potential go-ahead run to third in the eighth. — Wallace Matthews, New York Times, "Neil Walker Delivers a Yankees Win, but Give Brett Gardner the Save," 12 May 2018 The camerawork is a little shoddy, and the actual near miss happens just at the bottom of the screen, visible for only a few frames. — Eric Limer, Popular Mechanics, "CL-215 Scooper Gives Lucky Bystander a Haircut," 15 Aug. 2016These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'near miss.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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