missing

adj, noun — 4 senses

missing

adj

/ˈmɪsɪŋ/

Etymology By surface analysis, miss + -ing.

1

Not able to be located; gone, misplaced.

  • my missing socks
  • Forty three killed and 80 wounded in action with the Implacable. 180 killed and miſſing in action with the Centaur.1808 October 1, “State of Public Affairs in September. Containing Official Papers and Authentic Documents. [Killed and Wounded on Board the Emperor of Russia’s Late Ship of War Sevolod.]”, in The Monthly Magazine, or British Register, volume XXVI, part II, number 3 (number 176 overall), London: Printed for Richard Phillips, […]; printed by J. Adlard, […], →OCLC, page 281, column 1:
1 more example
  • She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
2

Not present when it (they) should be.

  • missing data point
  • Joe went missing last year. He had all teeth missing when he was finally found.
2 more examples
  • We've got some flatware missing - There seem to be some cooking utensils missing too!
  • How likely is it that all the people who are described as missing are living together in a small town somewhere?1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 71:
3

Of an internal combustion engine: running roughly due to an occasional lack of a spark or other irregular fault.

Derived terms
go missing, missing boundary, missing in action, missing in time, missingly, missing man formation, missing market, missing middle, missingness, missing piece, missing stair, missing time, missing trader fraud, missing white girl syndrome, missing white woman syndrome, nonmissing, turn up missing

missing

noun

Etymology By surface analysis, miss + -ing.

1

Mathematics, Sciences, Statistics A value that is missing.

  • The treatment of missings is a problem in statistical software.1997, S. Klinke, Data Structures for Computational Statistics, page 27:
  • Patterns of missings across the whole data set are readily visible, but also patterns which only apply to small subgroups of cases.2002, David J. Hand, Niall M. Adams, Richard J. Bolton, Pattern Detection and Discovery:
Related terms
missing in action, missing link, missing person

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.