miss the mark

Also found in: Legal.

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miss the mark

To be slightly or somewhat mistaken, incorrect, or inaccurate. I believe your statements about the city's homelessness problem have rather missed the mark. The film tries to be a commentary on the middle class in this country, but it ends up missing the mark.

ˌhit/ˌmiss the ˈmark

succeed/fail in achieving or guessing something: He blushed furiously and Robyn knew she had hit the mark.

See also: hit, mark, miss

References in periodicals archive ?

But these comments miss the mark, says Kimmel-Hankoff.

Who wants to date a millionaire? Can a service that promises to match eligible gay bachelors with men of means really result in true love?

First, the authors miss the mark when it comes to beneficial use realities.

Letterbox

More importantly, the programme questions why, more often than not, the official football songs always miss the mark and asks who is responsible for starting the chants which echo across the nation's terraces.

You'll never walk alone; Ex-S: Sing When You're Losing, Tuesday, BBC1, 10.35pm

These initiatives are directionally sensible, but often miss the mark. We believe that in designing a company policy to make outside directors owners, four main considerations should come to mind.

Better Boards: The Equity Answer

Some of the findings concerning the way journalists miss the mark on guns may be familiar.

Loaded Coverage

`That's where I think an income tax in Wyoming would miss the mark....

NO COMMENT

Unfortunately, many of these presentations miss the mark because the way they present the information is confusing or boring or they carry hidden sales pitches.

How to "sell" the 401(k) to employees

Nevertheless, they must constantly strive for perfection and be held accountable to the appropriate extent when they miss the mark. Only then will the art of civility become a beacon for leading policing into the future.

CPR: career saving advice for police officers

They use stories, tales, fables, and poems as the method, but both books miss the mark as real guides for moral education.

Literature and character

Jacob Weisberg has written a brisk and convincing account of the shifting fortunes of "government" from Madison to Gingrich, and its argument is eminently reasonable: that a smart, activist government is essential, and that the typical conservative pose ("let's cut everything") and the liberal retort ("don't cut anything" miss the mark. It is a predictable case, and that's not a criticism.

In Defense of Government: The Fall and Rise of Public Trust

hamartia Greek hamartia error, fault, a derivative of hamartanein to miss the mark, err

hamartia

Yet, traditional methods aimed at getting teens to see the light usually miss the mark.