English
odd
see also: Odd, ODD
Etymology

From Middle English odde, od, from Old Norse oddi, from oddr, from Proto-Germanic *uzdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *wes- + *dʰeh₁-.

Cognate to Icelandic oddi, Swedish udda, udd, Danish od and odde, Norwegian Bokmål odde; related to Old English ord. Doublet of ord "point".

Pronunciation Adjective

odd (not comparable)

  1. Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected.
    Synonyms: unusual, strange, Thesaurus:strange
    Antonyms: common, familiar, mediocre, Thesaurus:common
    She slept in, which was very odd.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
      We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.
    1. Peculiar, singular and strange in looks or character; eccentric, bizarre.
  2. (not comparable) Without a corresponding mate in a pair or set; unmatched; (of a pair or set) mismatched.
    Synonyms: single, mismatched
    Optimistically, he had a corner of a drawer for odd socks.
    My cat Fluffy has odd eyes: one blue and one brown.
    • 1822, John Gage, The History and Antiquities of Hengrave, in Suffolk, page 29:
      Itm , lxij almond rivetts.
      • Almain rivetts, a sort of light armour having sleeves of mail, or iron plates, rivetted, with braces for the defence of the arms.
    • Itm, one odd back for an almond rivett.
  3. (not comparable) Left over, remaining after the rest have been paired or grouped.
    I'm the odd one out.
  4. (not comparable) Left over or remaining (as a small amount) after counting, payment, etc.
  5. (not comparable) Scattered; occasional, infrequent; not forming part of a set or pattern.
    I don't speak Latin well, so in hearing a dissertation in Latin, I would only be able to make out the odd word of it.
    but for the odd exception
  6. (not comparable) Not regular or planned.
    He's only worked odd jobs.
  7. (not comparable) Used or employed for odd jobs.
    • 1879, Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening, page 262:
      The odd horse will now be employed in carting couch grass on to pasture land, carting hay, &c, to sheep in the field, carting roots, straw, &c, for feeding cattle in the boxes or dairy cows in the stalls or yards, and in various odd jobs on the farm  ...
    • 1894, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Sessional papers. Inventory control record 1, page 57:
      At about 14 he rises a step by getting the 'odd' horse and cart, and does all the small carting work about the farm.
  8. (maths, not comparable) Numerically indivisible by two.
    Antonyms: even
    The product of two odd numbers is also odd.
  9. (not comparable) Numbered with an odd number.
    How do I print only the odd pages?
  10. (not comparable, in combination with a number) About, approximately; somewhat more than (an approximated round number).
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:approximately
    There were thirty-odd people in the room.
  11. Out of the way, secluded.
  12. (sports) On the left.
    He served from the odd court.
  13. (obsolete) Singular in excellence; matchless; peerless; outstanding. [since the 1400s]
    • 1886, Walter William Skeat, The Wars of Alexander: An Alliterative Romance Translated Chiefly from the Historia Alexandri Magni de Preliis, page 120, in (modern English) notes about the Middle English text:
      He goes to Phrygia, and sees Scamander. "Happy are all," he says, "who are honoured by that odd clerk. Homer." In Macedonia, he finds hie mother.
    • 1815 February 23, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC ↗:
      I assure you, if I were Hazlewood I should look on his compliments, his bowings, his cloakings, his shawlings, and his handings with some little suspicion; and truly I think Hazlewood does so too at some odd times.
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

odd (plural odds)

  1. (informal) Something left over, not forming part of a set.
    I’ve got three complete sets of these trading cards for sale, plus a few dozen odds.
  2. (mathematics, diminutive) An odd number.
    So let’s see. There are two evens here and three odds.
Odd
Proper noun
  1. A male given name
  2. Minced form of God.
    Odd's pittikins, Odd's blood, Odd's hounds, Odd's dickens, Od's fish, Od's heft
ODD
Noun

odd

  1. Initialism of oppositional defiant disorder
  2. (computing) Initialism of optical disc drive


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary