Miss ending after missing beginning (4)
I believe the answer is:
lose
'miss' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'ending after missing beginning' is the wordplay.
'ending' becomes 'close' (close is a kind of ending).
'after missing beginning' means to remove the first letter.
'close' with its initial letter removed is 'LOSE'.
(Other definitions for lose that I've seen before include "Mislay or be defeated" , "Be beaten" , "Fail to keep" , "Cease to have" , "go down" .)