Phrase guide

at a stand

prep_phrase · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

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Pronunciation

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1

prep_phrase

Meaning 1

In a state of confusion or uncertainty; undecided what to do next.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic

Examples

  • Now I am quite at a stand.
  • 1847, Joel Palmer, Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains to the Mouth of the Columbia River, entry for 12 October, 1845, Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed.), Early Western Travels Volume 30, Cleveland, OH: Arthur H. Clark, 1906, p. 139, I began for the first time to falter, and was at a stand to know what course to pursue.
  • 1956, J. I. M. Stewart (as Michael Innes), A Question of Queens (alternative title Old Hall, New Hall), New York: Dodd, Mead, Chapter 16, p. 162, He asked me, had I heard any untoward news abroad? I replied instantly that I had not. Nothing of foreigners come into the neighbourhood? This put me rather at a stand.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: at a loss

Antonyms: none provided

2

prep_phrase

Meaning 2

Not progressing; not changing; at a standstill; at an impasse.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: idiomatic

Examples

  • 1717, John Dryden (translator), Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books, London: Jacob Tonson, Book 15, “The Pythagorean Philosophy,” p. 521, Thus are their Figures never at a stand, But chang’d by Nature’s innovating Hand; All Things are alter’d, nothing is destroy’d, The shifted Scene for some new Show employ’d.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.