Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - near miss

also near-miss (near misses) 1. You can say that there is a near miss when something is nearly hit by another thing, for example by a vehicle or a bomb. Details have been given of a near miss between two airliners over southern England earlier this week... We’ve had a few near misses in the raids, as I expect you’ve noticed. = narrow escape N-COUNT 2. A near miss is an attempt to do something which fails by a very small amount. ...Milan’s successful defence of the European Cup and near-miss in the Italian championship last season. N-COUNT