From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlose groundlose groundSUCCESSFULto become less successful compared with someone or something you are competing with The Indian team seem determined to regain the ground they lost in the last game. → ground
Examples from the Corpus
lose ground• Shares of major banks lost ground.• Therefore, even in those first moments, he had lost ground, was starting to fall behind himself.• Elsewhere, Islamism remains an opposition force only, and, though still potent, is losing ground.• The radicals have steadily lost ground to the moderates since then.• American students lost ground in achievement levels in math and science between the 1970s and 1980s.• Without Samson's monumental strength, the smiths seemed to lose ground.• The concern in 1970 was that women were losing ground in educational opportunities.• Woosnam lost ground with a 73 and admits that he is' not in the groove at all. 