lose

Lose is a verb with several related meanings centered on failing to retain or win something. It can mean to misplace something and no longer know where it is (I often lose my keys). It can also mean to fail to win in a contest or to be defeated (Our team lost the game). It may refer to ceasing to have something through damage, destruction, or removal (They lost their funding), or to fail to maintain a quality or state (lose interest, lose control).

The verb is irregular: present lose, simple past lost, past participle lost; present participle losing. It is usually transitive, taking a direct object (lose the car keys, lose money), but can be used intransitively in phrases like “to lose one’s way.” Common phrasal uses include lose out, lose ground, lose weight, and lose time.

Common confusions include the similar-sounding adjective loose, which means not tight, and is pronounced differently. The noun form related to this verb is loss (as in “a loss of money”). The word lose frequently appears in idiomatic expressions such as lose heart, lose face, or lose track.

Etymology traces the verb lose to Old English losian, meaning “to perish, be lost,” and it is related to the modern noun loss. The term has cognates in several Germanic languages, reflecting its long-standing role in expressing absence, defeat, or misplacement.