miscarry

The word "miscarry" carries a sense of sadness and disappointment. Its main meaning relates to pregnancy: to miscarry is to lose a pregnancy naturally before the baby is born. This is a sensitive subject, and the word is often used in careful, compassionate conversation because of the pain such a loss can bring.

However, "miscarry" also has an older and broader meaning outside pregnancy. It can mean to fail or to go wrong. A plan can miscarry because of unexpected problems. A negotiation can miscarry if the people involved refuse to compromise. In this sense, the word suggests that something was started with hope but did not reach a successful end.

This broader use appears often in older writing. Shakespeare, for example, used "miscarry" for failed ventures or unlucky events. That older sense is less common in everyday speech now, but it still helps explain related expressions such as "miscarriage of justice," where justice has failed or gone badly wrong.

So whether it describes the loss of a pregnancy or the failure of a plan, "miscarry" points to an unhappy result: something precious, intended, or hoped for does not come safely to completion. It is a word best used with care, especially in its most common and most personal sense.