ODDS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Odds

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɑdz/ Listen

noun

Odds n.

Difference in favor of one and against another; excess of one of two things or numbers over the other; inequality; advantage; superiority; hence, excess of chances; probability. The odds are often expressed by a ratio; as, the odds are three to one that he will win, i. e. he will win three times out of four "Preeminent by so much odds." "The fearful odds of that unequal fray." "The odds Is that we scarce are men and you are gods." "There appeared, at least, four to one odds against them." "All the odds between them has been the different scope... given to their understandings to range in." "Judging is balancing an account and determining on which side the odds lie."

Quarrel; dispute; debate; strife; chiefly in the phrase at odds. "Set them into confounding odds." "I can not speak Any beginning to this peevish odds."

At odds, in dispute; at variance. "These squires at odds did fall." "He flashes into one gross crime or other, that sets us all at odds."

It is odds, it is probable; same as odds are, but no longer used. (Obs.)

odds are it is probable; as, odds are he will win the gold medal.

Odds and ends, that which is left; remnants; fragments; refuse; scraps; miscellaneous articles. "My brain is filled... with all kinds of odds and ends."

slim odds low odds; poor chances; as, there are slim odds he will win any medal.

See images of 'Odds'

Etymology of 'Odds'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Odds" Quotes from Famous Books

... main current of the crowd favoured him. In about twenty minutes he was swept away from the Green, and into a street. There were now fewer foes about him; he saw an opportunity, and together with Redgrave burst away. There was no shame in taking to flight where the odds against him were so overwhelming. But pursuers were close behind him; their cry gave a lead to the chase. He looked for some by-way as he rushed along the pavement. But an unexpected refuge offered itself. ...

— Demos • George Gissing

... coughed, sneezed, or stubbed his toe. Moreover, he was recklessly prepared to execute this threat without a second's hesitation, fully realizing that if he would hold supremacy against such overpowering odds he must let his words and acts mesh with the nicety of machine gears, or his authority ...

— Where the Souls of Men are Calling • Credo Harris

... his host was turning over a drawer full of odds and ends in the smoking-room. Suddenly he put his hand upon a little box. 'Now,' he said, 'you know about old things; tell me what that is.' My friend opened the little box, and found in it a thin gold chain with an object attached to it. He glanced at the object and then took off his spectacles ...

— Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - Part 2: More Ghost Stories • Montague Rhodes James

... are going it some in here. You certainly are taking big chances butting in. I didn't think you had the nerve. It's a hundred to one against me, but I've beaten bigger odds than that. You get up that chimney and I'll plant myself in the chest. Quick, ...

— Officer 666 • Barton W. Currie

... London, to Miss Octavia Hill, Mrs. Bernard Bosanquet, and Mr. C. S. Loch, it will be evident to my readers that my obligation is great. It will be evident also that I have been helped by Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell and other workers in New York, who, against such odds, are making advances in the reform of municipal abuses; and by that group too who, under the leadership of Miss Jane Addams, have given us, at Hull House in Chicago, so admirable an object lesson in the power of neighborliness. But more than to any other teachers, perhaps, ...

— Friendly Visiting among the Poor - A Handbook for Charity Workers • Mary Ellen Richmond

More quotes...