a miss is as good as a mile

A

a miss is as good as a mile

Meaning

• This phrase points to the fact that regardless of how badly (or not) someone missed the target, it is a miss after all.
• It disregards the fact that a miss may be by a narrow margin, because it still represents failure.

Example Sentences

1. Although they scored the last goal, that one miss was as good as a mile.
2. It does not matter that you scored two marks less than her, you will not be given the prize because a miss is as good as mile.
3. I ran a marathon ones and can tell you that only in charitable runs a miss is not as good as a mile. Everywhere else the competition is fierce.
4. He did not get the award even this year after all the hard work he put in. He is quite depressed since a miss of this nature is as good as mile.

Origin
The first known literary source to publish this exact quote was a journal named ‘The American Museum’ in 1788. But the saying may have been in use for at least a century prior to this. A similar expression was printed in 1614 by William Camden in his work titled ‘Remaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine’. In this piece of literature instead of the word ‘mile’ the words used were ‘an ell’, which was a measurement term of that time. The phrase went as “An ynche in a misse is as good as an ell.”

Synonym
An inch of a miss is as good as a span.

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