Word.ws English Dictionary

losing

Syllables: los·ingUK/ˈluːzɪŋ//ˈluzɪŋ/

losing is the present participle and gerund of lose.

losing is the early Modern form of lozenge.

Meaning of lose

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To cease to have (something) in one's possession or capability.
    • If you lose that ten-pound note, you'll be sorry.
    1. (transitive) To have (an organ) removed from one's body, especially by accident.
      • Johnny lost a tooth, but kept it for the tooth fairy.
    2. (transitive) To shed (weight).
      • I’ve lost five pounds this week.
    3. (transitive) To experience the death of (someone to whom one has an attachment, such as a relative or friend).
      • She lost all her sons in the war.
    4. (transitive) To pay or owe (some wager) due from an unsuccessful bet or gamble.
      • Frank had lost $500 staying in Vegas.
    5. (transitive) To be deprived of (some right or privileged access to something).
      • Users who engage in disruptive behavior may lose their accounts.

See all 17 meanings of lose

Meaning of lozenge

Noun

lozenge (plural lozenges)

  1. (shapes) A thin rhombus, having two acute and two obtuse angles.
    • Wherein the decussis is made within a longilaterall square, with opposite angles, acute and obtuse at the intersection; and so upon progression making a Rhombus or Lozenge figuration [...].1658, Sir Thomas Browne, The Garden of Cyrus, Folio Society, published 2007, page 167
    Synonyms:
    diamond
  2. A small tablet (originally diamond-shaped) or medicated sweet used to ease a sore throat.
    • One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.” He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter III, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    pastille, throat pastille, troche, lozzy

See all 4 meanings of lozenge

Adjective

losing (not comparable)

  1. That loses or has lost.
    • Being on the losing team is disappointing.

Noun

losing (plural losings)

  1. The process by which something is lost; a loss.
    • We conceive that an alternation of such losings and regainings will continue to be presented in England, until the whole business is set on a new and more stable basis by a revolution which shall not be moral only.1842, The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, page 339

Forms of losing

plurallosings

Words formed from losing

Phrases with losing

39 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with losing

Questions about losing

What does losing mean?
Losing means that loses or has lost.
What is losing the present participle and gerund of?
Losing is the present participle and gerund of lose.
What part of speech is losing?
Losing can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce losing?
Losing is pronounced /ˈluːzɪŋ/ (UK).

Words near losing in the dictionary

  1. losh
  2. Loshes
  3. losigamone
  4. losin'
  5. losindole
  6. losing
  7. losing caste
  8. losing control
  9. losing count
  10. losing face
  11. losing ground

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: losing (page history and authors); lose (page history and authors); lozenge (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-losing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “losing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/losing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.