From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhit/miss the markhit/miss the marka) SHOOTto hit or miss the thing that you were shooting at b) EFFECT/INFLUENCEto succeed or fail to have the effect you wanted Although it contains a certain amount of truth, this theory ultimately misses the mark. → mark
Examples from the Corpus
hit/miss the mark• Words don't always hit the mark, do they?• All too often, national political coverage misses the mark.• The umpires green-flagged the crash but penalised Stripes for hitting the mark, effectively giving Kanza the race.• In your recent coverage of Novell's letter of intent to purchase Unix System Laboratories you've really missed the mark.• But the show missed the mark on other aspects of police work, the group said.• The movie itself simply misses the mark.• In any book of several hundred pages you're bound to hit the mark occasionally.• As a welfare program, the minimum wage misses the mark because it worsens the status of the most disadvantaged youths. 