Word.ws English Dictionary

on a loose end

on a loose end is the archaic form of at a loose end.

Meaning of at a loose end

Prepositional phrase

  1. (UK) Idle; bored
    • Once the schools break up for the holidays, children across the country are at a loose end and instances of kids doing stupid things on the railway become far too common.2021 August 25, Stefanie Foster, “Comment: A dumb way to die”, in RAIL, number 938, page 3

Questions about on a loose end

What is on a loose end the archaic form of?
On a loose end is the archaic form of at a loose end.

Words near on a loose end in the dictionary

  1. on a full stomach
  2. on a go-slow
  3. on a good wicket
  4. on a kick
  5. on a lark
  6. on a loose end
  7. on a losing wicket
  8. on a mission
  9. on a need-to-know basis
  10. on a pair
  11. on a par

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on a loose end (page history and authors); at a loose end (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:

Cite this entry: “on a loose end.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_a_loose_end. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.