up in the air

Idioms  

1. Not settled, uncertain, as in The proposal to build a golf course next to the airport is still up in the air. This metaphoric expression likens something floating in the air to an unsettled matter. Put as in the air from the mid-1700s, it acquired up in the first half of the 1900s.

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Example Sentences

With so much time spent up in the air, they can ill afford not to.

From The Wall Street Journal

But beyond that, much more is up in the air.

From Barron's

LeBron James strolled to the scorer’s table Tuesday night and went through his pregame routine of throwing chalk up in the air, an iconic moment in his NBA-record 23rd season and on his 41st birthday.

From Los Angeles Times

Shroff was taking a day trip to drop off product samples with a customer, he said via text from up in the air.

From The Wall Street Journal

But insurance offers a particular window into the radically different philosophies of a 95-year-old legend and the new crop of float-hungry investor-insurers, at a time when much about Berkshire’s future is up in the air.

From The Wall Street Journal