Meaning of missing in action | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The designation for a member of an organization (usually military) with whom contact is lost and whose whereabouts are not known, but whose death is not confirmed.
   not-comparable
2. Not present when one is expected to be.
   broadly, not-comparable

Equivalents

Examples

“Missing in action are those who have been dropped from the muster-roll as missing in action, and have subsequently joined again. [...] If the missing in action, or desertion, and the return to the company, both occur in the quarter, it is not necessary to note them; in other words, it is not necessary that the soldiers should be dropped and taken up again on the same return.”

“Private Louis R. Ziegra of this place [Deep River, Connecticut], formerly a bookkeeper at the Pratt-Reid Player Action Co., who is announced in dispatches from the War Department as missing in action is a German prisoner of war.”

“One and one-tenth percent of the academy graduates have been lost or missing in action, prisoners of war or physically disabled as a result of the war. [...] An additional 150 Cadet-Midshipmen, before graduation, lost their lives or are missing in action.”

“My husband, Colonel Bobby Vinson, U.S. Air Force, has been missing in action since April 24, 1968. Well over half of the men currently listed by the Departments of State and Defense have been missing or imprisoned for longer than that. Some men have spent twice that long in prison cells in the north, jungles in the south, and pits in Laos. Many more have spent at least that time in the limbo we have termed "missing in action."”

“Before examining the French experience, it would seem useful to consider some of the major differences and similarities between the French war and the American war in Vietnam. The areas of combat and the type of warfare, the composition of the armed forces, the bargaining power of the adversaries and their dissimilar set of values, were all factors that affected, in one way or another, the numbers of killed in action, missing in action, prisoners of war, died in captivity, and bodies recovered.”

“Our Nation will not forget these heroes, and we will not stop searching for our service members who are missing in action. [...] I call upon the people of the United States to join me in saluting all American POWs and those missing in action who valiantly served our great country.”

“On 27 April 1981, Private Kevin Joyce (20) was on guard duty at a UN observation post in south Lebanon when he was kidnapped. He was never seen again and is now officially regarded by the Defence Forces as: ‘Missing in Action, Presumed Dead.’”

“He says that when pressed about why the money was missing in action, NAB [National Australia Bank] failed to provide an explanation and threatened to foreclose on the customer.”

“Finding her toothbrush last night had been the extent of her unpacking and her slippers were still missing in action.”

“John Barclay and [Stuart] McInally controlled the tackle area, denying England quick possession and fracturing the champions’ supply line, Simon Berghan anchored the scrum and behind Finn Russell, missing in action in the opening two rounds, fulfilled his captain Barclay’s prediction on the eve of the game that he would be the man of the match.”

“President Donald Trump called Attorney General Jeff Sessions "scared stiff and Missing in Action" on Saturday in his latest broadside on Twitter against the nation's top law enforcement officer.”

“A Canadian pledge of 200 soldiers for peacekeeping missions is missing in action more than 18 months after it was first promised to the United Nations by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.”

CEFR level