at a loss
7
4.3
- idiom
:
con pérdidas
- It's not Apple's style to sell at a loss... well, at least not their devices.
- sell at a loss
- operate at a loss
And now they're forced to sell these long bonds at a loss and all hell breaks loose.
- And now they're forced to sell these long bonds at a loss and all hell breaks loose.
- It's like I offered to buy out all of my other shareholders at a loss to myself at a profit to them so that I could bet on Bitcoin.
- A big question for the coming years is whether governments will continue to subsidize EVs while they're still mostly being sold at a loss.
- And anyway, what Amazon does is they uses their data, then makes the exact same product, undercuts them at a loss.
Examples
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After several months of poor sales, the shop found itself operating at a loss.
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Buyers claimed that experience indicated that goods purchased too early ended up being sold at a loss when styles changed.
Academic text (2018) -
Paul was forced to sell his share at a loss.
Fiction book (1998) -
If they were selling it at a loss, they would have expected operating losses instead of profit.
Blog text (26) -
Amazon and Apple are just throwing money away when they sell at a loss.
Blog text (11) -
If it does drop, you have no choice but to sell at a loss or wait until the stock recovers.
Blog text (11) -
"Approximately a third," he continued, "operate at a loss and are not subsidized."
Academic text (1992) -
If they have to operate at a loss for a couple of years, that's a smart money move.
Blog text (34) -
And now they're forced to sell these long bonds at a loss and all hell breaks loose.
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But the Kindle is a purposefully limited and purposefully cheap device, sold at a loss or break-even.
Blog text (27)
How Profitable
Surface Forms
Morphology
at + a + loss
The construction follows the common 'at + a + noun' pattern that signals being 'in a state of X', so a learner could infer it refers to some kind of 'loss'. However, the specific sense here is an abstract, metaphorical loss (of words, confidence, or direction) rather than the concrete financial meaning of 'loss', so the exact meaning 'not knowing what to do or say' is not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
At a loss comes from trade and counting money: a seller who must take less money than an item's cost is literally in a state of 'loss'. So the phrase came to mean 'for less money than the original cost' or 'losing money'.