Word.ws English Dictionary

at loose ends

at loose ends prepositional phrase: without any activity or purpose.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (Canada, US) Without any activity or purpose.
  2. (idiomatic) In an uncertain position or situation.
    • I am really at loose ends about this choice; I am between the proverbial rock and hard place.
  3. Not in order; in confusion; carelessly managed.

Questions about at loose ends

What does at loose ends mean?
At loose ends means without any activity or purpose.
What part of speech is at loose ends?
At loose ends is a prepositional phrase.

Words near at loose ends in the dictionary

  1. at leisure
  2. at length
  3. at liberty
  4. at loggerheads
  5. at long last
  6. at loose ends
  7. at minimum
  8. at most
  9. at night
  10. at no rate
  11. at no time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: at loose ends (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.

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

Cite this entry: “at loose ends.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/at_loose_ends. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.