Did you know that our these idioms are not commonly used any more? Check them out:
š±ā¢This phrase points to the fact that regardless of how badly (or not) someone missed the target, it is a miss after all.
š±ā¢It disregards the fact that a miss may be by a narrow margin, because it still represents failure.
Example
ā1. Although they scored the last goal, that one miss was as good as a mile.
ā2. It does not matter that you scored two marks less than her, you will not be given the prize because a miss is as good as mile.
ā3. I ran a marathon once and can tell you that only in charitable runs a miss is not as good as a mile. Everywhere else the competition is fierce.
ā4. He did not get the award even this year after all the hard work he put in. He is quite depressed since a miss of this nature is as good as mile.
Origin
The first known literary source to publish this exact quote was a journal named āThe American Museumā in 1788. But the saying may have been in use for at least a century prior to this. A similar expression was printed in 1614 by William Camden in his work titled āRemaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaineā. In this piece of literature instead of the word āmileā the words used were āan ellā, which was a measurement term of that time. The phrase went as āAn ynche in a misse is as good as an ell.ā
