Definition of near miss in English:
1A narrowly avoided collision or other accident.
- Tired and undermanned ships crews have lead to a worrying number of merchant ships being involved in collisions or near misses, a marine accident investigation chief has said.
- Members of Calne Town Council are campaigning for safer roads following a number of accidents and near misses in the town.
- This is the third fatality I can recall in the time I have worked and lived in Undercliffe and I have sadly lost track of the number of non-fatal accidents and the countless near misses on the same stretch of road.
2A bomb or shot that just misses its target.
- With a nuclear ballistic missile against a drone, a near miss was counted as a hit.
- In 1921 he was allowed to bomb US navy surplus or captured German warships and proved conclusively that even a near miss could sink them.
- He had then made a hasty and embarrassing retreat back into the thickets but had still had a near miss with a bullet that was fired after him, obviously to try and bring him down.
2.1Something almost achieved: a victory in Houston and a near miss in the semifinals of the French Open
More example sentences
- After a horrific string of near misses, their final match saw them beat Selkirk 17-15 at Beveridge Park.
- Remarkably, in the space of just two weeks, Mayo football has regained respectability after a sequence of failures, disappointments and near misses.
- Portugal are determined to banish the memories of two World Cup qualification near misses by securing their place for the finals this time around.
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