Word.ws English Dictionary

at a stand

at a stand prepositional phrase: in a state of confusion or uncertainty; undecided what to do next.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) In a state of confusion or uncertainty; undecided what to do next.
    • Now I am quite at a stand.
    • Well proceede;
      What, at a stand? has true loue got the power,
      To strike dumbe such a nimble wit?1622, Gervase Markham, William Sampson, The True Tragedy of Herod and Antipater with the Death of Faire Marriam, London: Matthew Rhodes, act III, scene 1
    Synonyms:
    at a loss
  2. (idiomatic) Not progressing; not changing; at a standstill; at an impasse.
    • Debreas on the other side, with cheerefull speech, and his owne valour, so encouraged his souldiors, that Scanderbeg was there notably resisted, and his fortune as it were at a stand:1603, Richard Knolles, “The Life of Mahomet, Second of that Name, Seventh King and First Emperor of the Turks”, in The Generall Historie of the Turkes, London, page 367
    • Thus are their Figures never at a stand,
      But chang’d by Nature’s innovating Hand;
      All Things are alter’d, nothing is destroy’d,
      The shifted Scene for some new Show employ’d.1717, John Dryden (translator), Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books, London: Jacob Tonson, Book 15, “The Pythagorean Philosophy,” p. 521

Examples of at a stand in a sentence

  • Wellworth was an excellent young man, she reddened excessively, and seemed at a stand for words.1767, Hugh Kelly, The Babler, London: J. Newbery et al., Volume 1, No. 15, p. 67,http://name.umdl.umich.edu/004886123.0001.001
  • It is, however, these exclusive affections, and an individual manner of seeing things, produced by ignorance, which keep women for ever at a stand, with respect to improvement […]1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Some Instances of the Folly which the Ignorance of Women Generates; with Concluding Reflections...
  • During this season of distress, the discouragements to marriage, and the difficulty of rearing a family are so great, that population is at a stand.1798, Thomas Malthus, chapter 2, in An Essay on the Principle of Population, London: J. Johnson, page 30:

Synonyms of at a stand

Questions about at a stand

What does at a stand mean?
At a stand means in a state of confusion or uncertainty; undecided what to do next.
How do you use at a stand in a sentence?
Wellworth was an excellent young man, she reddened excessively, and seemed at a stand for words.
What part of speech is at a stand?
At a stand is a prepositional phrase.

Words near at a stand in the dictionary

  1. at a profit
  2. at a push
  3. at a rate of knots
  4. at a run
  5. at a single stroke
  6. at a stand
  7. at a stretch
  8. at a stroke
  9. at a time
  10. at a venture
  11. at adventure

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: at a stand (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-at a stand.ogg.

Cite this entry: “at a stand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/at_a_stand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.