Contextualizebeta

miss the boat

verb

Etymology

Allusion to failing to catch a boat in time, effectively “missing” the boat. Popular since the 1920s.

Definitions

  1. To fail to take advantage of an opportunity

    To fail to take advantage of an opportunity; to overlook or be too late to pursue an option or course of action.

    • The price discount ended yesterday and I just missed the boat on a great deal.
    • As for food delivery technology, our company missed the boat, the harbor, and the ocean.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for miss the boat. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA