loose end

“A loose end is one way that Isaac put it,” said Burnett at his guilty-plea hearing.

Burnett said that Aguigui called the killings a “loose end.”

He passed a miserable week, unable to work, at a loose end in London during the height of the season.

And like the young professional man at a loose end, I made a pretence of looking through papers.

Then I sat down at a loose end, very much like a young professional man, doctor or estate-agent, waiting for the next client.

The string's tangled up about as bad as it was before, but I believe you're gettin' hold of the loose end.

The loose end of the tracing line, about an inch thick, was hanging near me.