at a stand

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at a stand

1. (idiomatic) In a state of confusion or uncertainty; undecided what to do next.

   Synonym: at a loss

   Now I am quite at a stand.

   • 1622, Gervase Markham and William Sampson, The True Tragedy of Herod and Antipater with the Death of Faire Marriam, London: Matthew Rhodes, Act III, Scene 1,

     Well proceede;

     What, at a stand? has true loue got the power,

     To strike dumbe such a nimble wit?

   • 1767, Hugh Kelly, The Babler, London: J. Newbery et al., Volume 1, No. 15, p. 67,

     Some how or other my eye encountered with Miss Maria’s at the end of this speech; she seemed conscious, and on my observing that Mr. Wellworth was an excellent young man, she reddened excessively, and seemed at a stand for words.

   • 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.

2. (idiomatic) Not progressing; not changing; at a standstill; at an impasse.
   • 1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, London, “The Life of Mahomet, Second of that Name, Seventh King and First Emperor of the Turks,” p. 367,

     Debreas on the other side, with cheerefull speech, and his owne valour, so encouraged his souldiors, that Scanderbeg was there notably resisted, and his fortune as it were at a stand:

   • 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.

   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, London: J. Johnson, Part 1, Chapter 13, Section 5, p. 442,

     It is, however, these exclusive affections, and an individual manner of seeing things, produced by ignorance, which keep women for ever at a stand, with respect to improvement […]

   • 1798, Thomas Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population, London: J. Johnson, Chapter 2, p. 30,

     During this season of distress, the discouragements to marriage, and the difficulty of rearing a family are so great, that population is at a stand.

   • 1956, Mary Renault, The Last of the Wine, New York: Vintage, 1975, Chapter 25, p. 368,

     The debate was at a stand […]