Word.ws English Dictionary

lose one's way

lose one's way verb: to become lost; to lose one's bearings, or idea of where one is.

Verb

lose one's way (third-person singular simple present loses one's way, present participle losing one's way, simple past and past participle lost one's way)

  1. To become lost; to lose one's bearings, or idea of where one is.
    • It was certainly rare to see a Juventus team lose their way so badly bearing in mind it was 1-1 at the break and, if anything, Massimiliano Allegri’s players had looked the more rounded side.2017 June 3, Daniel Taylor, “Real Madrid win Champions League as Cristiano Ronaldo double defeats Juve”, in The Guardian (London)
    • This was a wonderful advert for the Premier League, with both Chelsea and United intent on all-out attack - but Ferguson will be concerned at how his side lost their way after imperiously controlling much of the first period.2011 March 1, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2 - 1 Man Utd”, in BBC
  2. (figuratively) To cease to succeed or to follow the right path; to fail.
    • The band lost their way after their second album, and split up after a string of failures.

Antonyms of lose one's way

Forms of lose one's way

third-person singular presentloses one's way
present participlelosing one's way
past participlelost one's way
pastlost one's way

Questions about lose one's way

What does lose one's way mean?
Lose one's way means to become lost; to lose one's bearings, or idea of where one is.
What part of speech is lose one's way?
Lose one's way is a verb.
What is the past tense of lose one's way?
The past tense of lose one's way is lost one's way.

Words near lose one's way in the dictionary

  1. lose one's shit
  2. lose one's temper
  3. lose one's tongue
  4. lose one's touch
  5. lose one's virginity
  6. lose one's way
  7. lose one's wits
  8. lose oneself
  9. lose out
  10. lose patience
  11. lose sight of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lose one's way (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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