miss by a mile

Idioms and Phrases

Fall short, fail by a considerable amount, as in Your guess as to the winner missed by a mile . This expression employs miss in the sense of “fail to hit something aimed at,” a usage dating from the late 1400s, and by a mile for a great distance or interval, so used since Shakespeare's day.

Example Sentences

“I kind of had to step away from that a little bit because it wasn’t a sure thing that we were going to nail it. And it’s one of those things where you miss by an inch, you miss by a mile.”

From New York Times

The story of a Mason County home offers a peek into how one of Seattle-based Zillow’s most popular features can miss by a mile — and how hard it is to get it right.

From Seattle Times

We won’t just miss the target, we’ll miss by a mile.

From Time

The danger, though, is that online searches can be like going to the moon: if you’re off by an inch, you miss by a mile.”

From New York Times

Related Words

• err
• misconstrue
• misinterpret
• misjudge
• misread
• misunderstand
• overestimate
• overrate
• overvalue
• underestimate
• undervalue