near miss

noun

variants or less commonly near-miss

1

a

: a miss (as with a bomb) close enough to cause damage

b

: something that falls just short of success

2

a

: a near collision (as between aircraft)

b

: close call

Synonyms

• close call
• close shave

Example Sentences

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

And a near miss between Earth and Mars could cause much of the Martian crust to be ripped off by Earth’s gravity, pulling thousands of meteors onto our planet. —Douglas Fox, Discover Magazine, 2 Apr. 2015

For an asteroid headed toward Earth, that could be enough to change a direct hit to a near miss. —Kenneth Chang, New York Times, 26 Sep. 2022

For a dangerous oncoming asteroid, that nudge could be enough to change the trajectory from a direct hit to a near miss. —Kenneth Chang, BostonGlobe.com, 25 Sep. 2022

The near miss for Vos, the most powerful Republican in Wisconsin politics, shows just how crucial that endorsement can be in the land of cheese and election rejection. —BostonGlobe.com, 10 Aug. 2022

Rui Farias, executive director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History, told the Tampa Bay Times after Hurricane Irma’s near miss in 2017 that many people still believe it. —Curt Anderson, Orlando Sentinel, 26 Sep. 2022

The near miss radicalized John Fogerty and began haunting his compositions. —Elizabeth Nelson, WSJ, 19 Aug. 2022

The report of an apocalypse near miss came as a wake-up call to Reagan. —Evan Thomas, Washington Post, 22 July 2022

One thing Larson doesn’t have on his plate is time to dwell on his near miss last year at Pocono Raceway. —Dan Gelston, ajc, 23 July 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1940, in the meaning defined at sense 1a