Word.ws English Dictionary

the one that got away

the one that got away noun: a former romantic partner who retains a special place in one's memory and whose loss one regrets.

Noun

the one that got away

  1. (idiomatic) A former romantic partner who retains a special place in one's memory and whose loss one regrets.

Forms of the one that got away

alternative formTOTGA

Questions about the one that got away

What does the one that got away mean?
The one that got away means a former romantic partner who retains a special place in one's memory and whose loss one regrets.
What part of speech is the one that got away?
The one that got away is a noun.

Words near the one that got away in the dictionary

  1. The Odyssey
  2. the old woman is plucking her goose
  3. the oldest trick in the book
  4. The Olgas
  5. the one
  6. the one that got away
  7. the ones
  8. the organ grinder, not the monkey
  9. the organ grinders, not the monkeys
  10. the organ-grinder, not the monkey
  11. the other body

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the one that got away (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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