at sea

1. Also, all at sea . Perplexed, bewildered, as in She was all at sea in these new surroundings . This idiom transfers the condition of a vessel that has lost its bearings to the human mind. Charles Dickens used it in Little Dorrit (1855): “Mrs. Tickit ... was so plainly at sea on this part of the case.” [Second half of 1700s]

2. Aboard a ship, on the ocean, as in Within a few hours the ship would be out at sea . During World War II a famous American newscaster addressed his radio broadcasts to listeners everywhere, including “all the ships at sea.” [1300s]

Example Sentences

Drilling for oil out at sea has become expensive compared with far more economical alternatives such as the fracking fields in the Permian Basin, which straddled Texas and New Mexico.

From Los Angeles Times

Three months at sea had cost the company about $15,000 a day, he told The Times.

From Los Angeles Times

Teams were still out at sea searching for the missing boaters from Saturday’s incident, allowing them to quickly respond to the second boating incident.

From Los Angeles Times

To his surprise, Mara responded positively to his “message in a bottle at sea.”

From Los Angeles Times

Many millions of white men, including young white men, are really kind of lost at sea.

From Salon

Related Words

• baffled
• befuddled
• bewildered
• dazed
• disorganized
• distracted
• muddled
• perplexed
• perturbed
• puzzled