against all odds

1. In spite of seeming very unlikely, as in Against all odds we had a snowstorm in early May, or Against all odds the slower team won. This transfer of a betting term to general usage occurred about 1900.

Example Sentences

But when, against all odds, he seemingly achieves his goal, he muffs it.

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“And I always know for sure that, as we’re talking right now, somewhere in some room, somebody’s doing this” — he mimes typing — “and against all odds, that person will get a movie made. Somewhere that’s happening right now.”

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“Against all odds,” writes Karen G. Lloyd, a microbial biochemist at the University of Southern California, “it seems that Earth’s subsurface may be a nice place to live, as long as you aren’t too attached to multi-cellularity or oxygen.”

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Her bluff worked—and both she and her lover would survive against all odds until the Third Reich’s defeat.

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"This next chapter is Me vs. Me! It's me against all odds me against everything meant to get in my way," she wrote.

Read more on BBC