lose one’s way—
1. cease to follow the right track; become lost:
- The children lost their way in the dark and did no reach home.
2. be unable to find the right road in life:
- You seem to me like one who has lost his way and made a great error in life.
Note: The expression is not antonymous in meaning to the phrase win one’s way—succeed in following one’s course despite obstacles:
- The young fellow who will devote himself to agriculture may do even better than the youth who wins his way to the black-coated servitude of a bank.
lose way—(Nautical) lose speed:
- The wind failed and dropped to nothing, the dinghy lost way and drifted towards three lighters moored abreast.