"at loose ends" meaning in English

See at loose ends in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: en-au-at loose ends.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} at loose ends, {{en-prep phrase}} at loose ends
  1. (US, Canada) Without any activity or purpose. Tags: Canada, US
    Sense id: en-at_loose_ends-en-prep_phrase-x-y00LNN Categories (other): American English, Canadian English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 44 6 50
  2. (idiomatic) In an uncertain position or situation. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-at_loose_ends-en-prep_phrase-2jAjVllO
  3. Not in order; in confusion; carelessly managed.
    Sense id: en-at_loose_ends-en-prep_phrase-rWTbELC- Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 44 6 50
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: at a loose end, between a rock and a hard place

Download JSON data for at loose ends meaning in English (2.0kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "at loose ends",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "at loose ends",
      "name": "en-prep phrase"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "50 6 44",
      "word": "at a loose end"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "50 6 44",
      "word": "between a rock and a hard place"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Canadian English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "44 6 50",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Without any activity or purpose."
      ],
      "id": "en-at_loose_ends-en-prep_phrase-x-y00LNN",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, Canada) Without any activity or purpose."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I am really at loose ends about this choice; I am between the proverbial rock and hard place."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In an uncertain position or situation."
      ],
      "id": "en-at_loose_ends-en-prep_phrase-2jAjVllO",
      "links": [
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ],
        [
          "position",
          "position"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) In an uncertain position or situation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "44 6 50",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Not in order; in confusion; carelessly managed."
      ],
      "id": "en-at_loose_ends-en-prep_phrase-rWTbELC-"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-at loose ends.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-at_loose_ends.ogg/En-au-at_loose_ends.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-at_loose_ends.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "at loose ends"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "at loose ends",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "at loose ends",
      "name": "en-prep phrase"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "at a loose end"
    },
    {
      "word": "between a rock and a hard place"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "Canadian English"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Without any activity or purpose."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, Canada) Without any activity or purpose."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I am really at loose ends about this choice; I am between the proverbial rock and hard place."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In an uncertain position or situation."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "uncertain",
          "uncertain"
        ],
        [
          "position",
          "position"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) In an uncertain position or situation."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Not in order; in confusion; carelessly managed."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-at loose ends.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/a5/En-au-at_loose_ends.ogg/En-au-at_loose_ends.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/En-au-at_loose_ends.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "at loose ends"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.