A miss is as good as a mile

Idiom: A miss is as good as a mile - A near miss is still a miss and is no better than missing by a big margin. In other words, losing is still losing.

Context #1

Timothy: Hi, Samantha. What’s wrong?

Samantha: I feel so bad because my basketball team played for the championship last night and we lost. It was our big chance and we failed!

Timothy: What was the final score?

Samantha: It was 82-83 in overtime. We missed a free throw at the very end and the other team won by a point.

Timothy: Well, it sounds like the game was really close and your team played well.

Samantha: Does the score really matter? A miss is as good as a mile. Losing a game by one point is still losing.

Timothy: I see your point.

Context #2

Sal:  Good Morning, Mr. Smith. I’m so sorry I’m late.

Mr. Smith: This is the third time in a week, and we really needed you today in the meeting. Everyone else from the department was there.

Sal: I only missed the train by one minute! It was pulling out of the station just as I arrived. I almost made it. So then I had to wait another hour for the next train.

Mr. Smith: Well, a miss is as good as a mile. Being late for the train one minute is the same as being late an hour. You still missed it. You need to make a greater effort to be on time.

Sal: You are right. It won’t happen again.

Meaning: A close miss is still a miss, even if it’s only by a small margin. In context 1, Samantha’s basketball team lost the championship by 1 point, but they still lost, so the margin didn’t really matter. In context 2, Timothy only missed the train by one minute, but he had to wait one hour for the next train. Therefore, there was no difference in missing the train by one minute or one hour. He was still late.

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