cast loose
Let go, freed, or lost. Likened to a ship that drifts without an anchor or moorings to a dock. When I arrived in the country, I found myself cast loose in a city I didn't know, among people whose language I couldn't speak. With my inheritance money, I was cast loose to pursue whatever life I fancied. Somehow, my poor little boy was cast loose on the field trip and left to wander the museum helplessly on his own.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
cast loose
Also, cast adrift. Let go, freed, as in After Rob was suspended from boarding school, he was cast loose with nowhere to go, or Selling her home meant she was cast adrift with no financial ties or responsibilities. Originally a nautical term for releasing a vessel, this idiom was being used figuratively by the late 1500s.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.