Other forms: miscarriages
A miscarriage is the early loss of a pregnancy, or a failure of justice. Suffer a miscarriage, a miscarriage of justice, an early miscarriage.
The medical sense is common — a large share of recognised pregnancies end this way, most in the first weeks and most for reasons nobody could have prevented, which is why the word is used carefully. A miscarriage of justice is a wrongful conviction. Note that the mis- means wrongly, as in mistake.
1nounmiscarriageThe early loss of a pregnancy.
“She was heartbroken after a miscarriage early in her pregnancy.”
2nounfailureA failure of justice.
“Sending an innocent man to prison for twenty years was a terrible miscarriage of justice.”
miscarriage is a loss or failure.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱers-
fro-nor
cariage
Middle English
cariage
English
carriage
English, today
miscarriage
Built from
From mis- + carriage. carriage comes from Middle English cariage, from fro-nor cariage, from carier (“to carry”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA