at a loss

loss  (lôs, ls)

n.

1. The act or an instance of losing: nine losses during the football season.

2.

a. One that is lost: wrote their flooded house off as a loss.

b. The condition of being deprived or bereaved of something or someone: mourning their loss.

c. The amount of something lost: selling at a 50 percent loss.

3. The harm or suffering caused by losing or being lost.

4. losses People lost in wartime; casualties.

5. Destruction: The war caused incalculable loss.

6. Electricity The power decrease caused by resistance in a circuit, circuit element, or device.

7. The amount of a claim on an insurer by an insured.

Idiom:

at a loss

1. Below cost: sold the merchandise at a loss.

2. Perplexed; puzzled: I am at a loss to understand those remarks.

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[Middle English los, from Old English; see lose.]

Thesaurus

Adj.	1.	at a loss - filled with bewilderment; "at a loss to understand those remarks"; "puzzled that she left without saying goodbye" nonplused, nonplussed, puzzled perplexed - full of difficulty or confusion or bewilderment; "perplexed language"; "perplexed state of the world"
Adv.	1.	at a loss - below cost; "sold the car at a loss"