AT A LOOSE END

[beachboy]

I FEEL RATHER AT A LOOSE END
Does it mean I'm bored because I have nothing to do, or something has happened and I don't know what to do? Is this expression common in the USA?

 

[montfan]

I am not a teacher, and I looked up the idiom on this website.

It means the first one. It is not very common in the United States.

 

[TheParser]

I FEEL RATHER AT A LOOSE END
Does it mean I'm bored because I have nothing to do, or something has happened and I don't know what to do? Is this expression common in the USA?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


I believe that the expression is "at loose ends."

 

[bhaisahab]

"At a loose end" is quite common in BrE.

 

[Tdol]

We have at a loose end as BrE and at loose ends at AmE; is this correct? Thanks

 

[TheParser]

We have at a loose end as BrE and at loose ends at AmE; is this correct? Thanks

Cambridge Dictionary Online says that "at a loose end" is British and

Australian, and "at loose ends" is American. Both mean "to have

nothing to do."

***

EnglishClub.com feels there is a difference:

"At loose ends" seems [my emphasis] to indicate a state of

unhappy restlessness that results from having nothing to do.

The British idiom simply means having nothing to do.

 

[JMurray]

EnglishClub.com feels there is a difference:
"At loose ends" seems to indicate a state of unhappy restlessness that results from having nothing to do".

I feel the Aust/NZ use of "at a loose end" generally implies restlessness too.

 

[probus]

On this one, Canada follows the American rather than the British usage -- at loose ends.