miscarry
/mɪsˈkari
/verb (miscarries, miscarrying, miscarried) [no object]
1(Of a pregnant woman) experience a miscarriage: Wendy miscarried after five weeks [with object]: she miscarried her first baby...
- But in 1992 a pregnant woman spontaneously miscarried when she was ‘tasered.’
- For goodness sake, nature is estimated to abort up to 80% of all pregnancies - many women miscarry before they even know they are pregnant, and never know they were.
- Fears that chemical byproducts resulting from purifying drinking water with chlorine boost the chances that pregnant women will miscarry were not supported by the results of a major new study.
Synonyms
lose one's baby, have a miscarriage, abort, have a spontaneous abortion
2(Of a plan) fail to attain an intended outcome: such a rash crime, and one so very likely to miscarry!...
- This plan miscarried, but he corresponded with Sartre and struck up a friendship with Jean Beaufret, the most loyal of French Heideggerians.
- But the plot miscarries, and finally Celia's virtue and loyalty prevail on the king to surrender her to his son.
- The plot miscarried, only Hippias' younger brother Hipparchus was killed, and the ‘tyrannicides’ were executed.
Synonyms
go wrong, go awry, go amiss, be unsuccessful, fail, misfire, abort, be abortive, founder, come to nothing, come to grief, meet with disaster, fall through, be ruined, fall flat, boomerang, rebound, backfire, recoil
informal flop, bite the dust, go up in smoke, go phut
2.1 dated (Of a letter) fail to reach its intended destination: many of my letters home miscarried because the post went through enemy-occupied Europe
