at loose ends

idiom

: not knowing what to do : not having anything in particular to do

With everyone on vacation she was at loose ends.

Drop by if you find yourself at loose ends this weekend.

Examples of at loose ends in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Following the 1999 enactment of the Good Friday Agreement, many of the paramilitaries newly freed from prison were left at loose ends while much of their recollections of and perspectives on the conflict were still locked away behind omertà-style oaths of secrecy. —

Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 16 Nov. 2024 Asher, eighty-three and semi-retired, is himself at loose ends. —

Laura Miller, The New Yorker, 16 Sep. 2024 While a few extra characters are left at loose ends and therefore feel extraneous, those aren’t necessary for the communication of the central ideas of class warfare and hypocrisy. —

Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2024 Twenty-three years later, Sarah Hanover was at loose ends. —

Heidi Blake, The New Yorker, 29 July 2024 See all Example Sentences for at loose ends

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“At loose ends.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/at%20loose%20ends. Accessed 24 Dec. 2024.

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