loss

views updated May 14 2018

loss / lôs; läs/ • n. the fact or process of losing something or someone: avoiding loss of time | funding cuts will lead to job losses | loss-making industries. ∎  the state or feeling of grief when deprived of someone or something of value: I feel a terrible sense of loss. ∎  the detriment or disadvantage resulting from losing: his fall from power was no loss to the world. ∎  [in sing.] a person or thing that is badly missed when lost: he will be a great loss to many people. ∎  Physics a reduction of power within or among circuits, measured as a ratio of power input to power output.PHRASES: at a loss1. puzzled or uncertain what to think, say, or do: she became popular, and was at a loss to know why he was at a loss for words.2. making less money than is spent buying, operating, or producing something: a railroad running at a loss.

loss

views updated May 18 2018

loss XIV. prob. back-formation from lost, pp. of LOSE; cf. the synon. contemp. †lost. Not continuing OE. los (only in phr. tō lose to destruction), corr. to OHG. (far)lor, ON. los, f. Gmc. *lus- *laus- (see LOOSE), *leus- (OE. lēosan, whence ME. leese lose, and LORN), extension of IE. *lou- *leu- *lu- (Gr. lúein set free, L. luere, solvere pay, SOLVE).

Loss

views updated May 17 2018

LOSS

Diminution, reduction, depreciation, decrease in value; that which cannot be recovered.

The term loss is a comprehensive one, and relative, since it does not have a limited or absolute meaning. It has been used interchangeably with damage, deprivation, and injury.

In the law of insurance, a loss is the ascertained liability of the insurer, a decrease in value of resources, or an increase in liabilities. It refers to the monetary injury that results from the occurrence of the contingency for which the insurance was taken out.

Loss of earning capacity is an injury to an individual's ability to earn wages at a future time and may be recovered as an element of damages in a tort case.

loss

views updated May 29 2018

loss one man's loss is another man's gain often said by the gainer in self-congratulation; proverbial saying, early 16th century.
there's no great loss without some gain expressing consolation or resignation; proverbial saying, mid 17th century.

LOSS

views updated May 23 2018

LOSS large-object salvage system